Fate is a Great Excuse
by Sarah1281
Summary: Fayne doesn't really understand how this whole bound to fate thing works but that's probably because she has no memory of being bound to it herself. She understands why it's up to her to change things, really she does. But how could this world have made it as long as it has without her if literally everything everyone tries to do is fated to fail? It's just highly improbable.
1. Chapter 1

Fate is a Great Excuse

The blonde dokkalfar woman was cognizant of a bothersome buzzing noise before she even opened her eyes. Was that a bee? She hated bees. It couldn't just be one bee as it was pretty loud. Unless the buzzing was right by her ear. Was she going to get stung? She should move. Unless moving startled it and made it – them? – sting her. What was the rule about bees?

The weight was the next thing she noticed. Something was on top of her. It felt like a someone and she opened her eyes to find what appeared to be a corpse lying on her. Well when it looked like a corpse it usually was one so she quickly pushed it off only to discover that she was lying on a whole pile of misshapen bodies that, from a glance, appeared to be in pain. Were the bees here for them? Or were they maggots? Did maggots buzz? Did flies? Damned if she knew.

But what was important was getting off of them so she forced her way to the top of the pile. Standing on a mountain of corpses. This was not a good sign. She tried to think of how she got there and found she could not. Was she the sole survivor of a massacre or something? She certainly felt like it. She didn't seem to be injured so who knew how she was mistaken for dead. Maybe she was unconscious and no one checked all that much? It was a pretty massive pile of dead people.

She was breathing far harder than she should be for just moving a few feet away from the mound of bodies and she was coughing like she was trying to expel a lung. What was going on?

She appeared to be in a cave and alone except for all the corpses. It was a pretty giant cave. Maybe this was the work of a nefarious serial killer and she had to get out of here before he came back to finish the job. Yeah, no matter what was going on getting out of there seemed to be the best move so she took off.

Along the way, she happened upon a staff. Excellent. She definitely needed it more than whoever just left it lying around in a locked chest somewhere. She heard someone and would have started towards them but they sounded pretty ominous with 'No child of dust shall escape' and she didn't know if she was considered a child of dust or not but escape was pretty much what she wanted to do just then.

The call for help sounded much less evil so she went off that way. The guy in question must be some kind of ventriloquist as he sounded a _lot _closer than he actually was. She finally found a gnome surrounded by some very weird-looking people and fortunately they stopped harassing the gnome in order to attack her. Well, fortunately for the gnome. She didn't exactly appreciate all the attention but she managed to shoot some bolts of light at them and it seemed to hurt them. And then kill them.

Well maybe now she'd get some answers.

"Thank you so much for saving me!" the gnome said. "I don't know who you are or what you're doing here but…wait, never mind. Yes I do."

"Well that's more than I know," the dokkalfar said. "Care to fill me in?"

The gnome frowned. "I don't know. I don't think I should. I'm not nearly so important as to tell you the plot."

The dokkalfar crossed her arms."I just saved your life. The least you can do is tell me what's going on."

"Well _what's going on_ should be obvious," the gnome said. "We're under attack by the Tuatha Deohn."

"Oh, obviously," the dokkalfar mocked. "Except, no, that's not obvious at all. What's a Tuatha Deohn?"

The gnome stared at her incredulously. "How do you not know what they are? Do you live in a bubble or something? Or do you have memory problems?"

The dokkalfar thought about it. "I…yes? I guess. So just tell me."

The gnome sighed. "I have neither the time nor inclination to get deep into the history of all of this so…fae. They die but then come back to life because they're just lucky that way. But it's not like a immediately rising from the dead so there's no point in killing them thing. It sometimes takes a few years, I think. And I don't know if they're born or fall from the sky or what since it's never occurred to me to ask before. There are two types of fae. The summer fae are your basic commune with nature and look down on mortals type of fae while the winter fae are your basic celebrate death and look down on mortal fae. About ten years ago the winter fae were taken over by a radical group called the Tuatha Deohn who want to kill everybody to bring back some sealed god that might not even exist or something."

The dokkalfar blinked. "That's…not very precise."

The gnome shrugged. "What are you going to do? The Tuatha are usually more in the mood to kill everybody than to explain why they're killing everybody."

"Huh. So since I appear to be suffering memory problems and you said you know why I'm here, could you maybe tell me that?" the dokkalfar asked.

"You died," the gnome said bluntly.

"I…what?" the dokkalfar asked, uncertain she'd heard him correctly. "Was that why I woke up on a pile of corpses? Who killed me? Was it you? Or the Tuatha?"

"Damned if I know," the gnome said. "Except it definitely wasn't me."

"Then how did I get here? And how did I come back to life? Am I a fae?"

"Oh, you're definitely not. They have blue or green or purple skin," the gnome explained. "Here at the Well of Souls, Professor Hugues magically recreates the bodies of dead people he's never seen and hopes that their soul will be in their bodies and they'll be alive again."

"…is there any point in asking how?"

"Magic. I just said that," the gnome replied. "Weren't you listening?"

"That's awfully convenient, isn't it?" the dokkalfar asked.

"Not really since it has never worked before. We have been able to get them to start breathing but they're all zombies and usually we just grow corpses," the gnome said.

"Why don't you use bodies that are already on hand?" she asked. "Surely if there is a war you can't be hurting for them. It just seems easier."

"Are you kidding? Desecrate the dead? We've all read Frankenstein. But while there's a good chance that the Tuatha won't show up again until we're done talking, I know that I'm not important enough to avoid being tragically impaled right in front of you while you watch uselessly instead of helping me so let's go and try to stay ahead of things, shall we?" the gnome asked rhetorically.

The two set off. Despite the hurry that the gnome claimed to be in, he stopped to show her off to literally every other gnome they came across. Despite the fact she seemed to be better at fighting than anyone else around, they wouldn't let her stay and help because it was really important that she not die again. Well, honestly she'd rather stay alive long enough to figure out what was going on, too. But the suicidal last stand all of the gnomes, including the one she was with, insisted on seemed a little unnecessary.

She found another gnome standing over a giant cauldron, completely serene.

"Um…hi," the dokkalfar said. "Are you not aware that there's a Tuatha invasion going on right now?"

"Oh, no, I'm aware," the gnome said. "That's why I'm trying to get this last bit of research tied up. My name is Hugues. What's yours?"

The dokkalfar hesitated. "I…don't know. I appear to be having some memory problems."

Hugues approached her and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Are you now? I wonder if that has anything to do with you being brought back to life."

"Okay, how does everybody know that you brought me back to life? Did you memorize all the corpses? I know there was a lot!" the dokkalfar exclaimed.

Hugues shook his head. "No, of course not, but you're not a gnome nor a Tuatha so what else would you be doing here?"

"That's…actually a really good point," she admitted.

"Oh, we had no idea you were alive or we never would have thrown you out with the rest of the corpses to be burned!" Hugues cried out. "And not just for moral reasons but because doing that would completely defeat the purpose of trying to bring someone back from the dead! Maybe I should have waited longer than thirty seconds after you were formed before deciding it didn't work and tossing you out…"

"Maybe," the dokkalfar agreed, quickly growing alarmed. "How do you know that I'm your first success? Maybe you brought back all sorts of people only to burn them alive."

Hugues shook his head. "That can't be it. I'm not dead."

"I don't see the correlation between these two unless you expect your god to smite you for burning people alive," the dokkalfar said.

"It's really weird that you don't have a name."

The dokkalfar narrowed her eyes. "I'm sorry if it's strange for you but I can't help that I don't have my memory."

"Oh no, I don't blame you for that at all! In fact you could just go on a killing spree and join the Tuatha and I would still like you for coming back from the dead for me," Hugues said. "Though please don't do that. It's just that I want to know what to think of you as. Frankenstein taught us all about the value of not just calling the person you brought back to life the creature or else things will end badly and everyone will think of the creature when they say your name. I wouldn't want you to be known as Hugues with everyone forgetting me."

"Do we really have time to name me?" the dokkalfar asked. "I did mention the invasion, right?"

"If you don't name yourself then, as your sort-of creator, it will be up to me to name you and I've always liked Huguesella for a girl," Hugues said pointedly.

The dokkalfar started coughing. "I just…give me a minute…"

It took fifteen but finally she said, "Fayne. I can live with Fayne."

"Well, Fayne, it's good to meet you," Hugues said smiling. "I wish I could have known you longer or that most of the time we were acquainted you weren't busy quietly trying to come up with a name that could beat out Huguesella but that's life for you."

"Wait, why are you acting like we're never going to see each other again?" Fayne asked. "Everyone wanted me to come up here so we could escape together."

"Oh, I have no intention of escaping. I'm going to suicidally charge them and hope I live long enough to get them to inexplicably chase after me and ignore you while you go find a friend of my name Agarth in Gorhart."

"You're saying these words but I don't know who that is or where that is and am I really just supposed to ask everybody until I find your Agarth guy? What if he's not where you say he is?" Fayne asked.

Hugues shrugged. "I don't know but that won't be my problem as I'm about to die."

"Yeah, that's another thing. Why would you want to do that? That's a really stupid plan. I have never heard of any stupider plans. Literally. And while that may not seem like it means a lot given my amnesia, I want you to know that that does not detract from the stupidness of this plan," Fayne informed him.

"I'm not saying that I like it either," Hugues said defensively. "But it's not like I can do anything else."

Fayne stared at him. "Uh…yes. Yes you can. You can do literally anything else and it wouldn't be that stupid."

Hugues sighed melodramatically. "You don't understand. I have to do this."

"You're right; I don't understand," Fayne agreed. "Care to explain?"

"Not really. I'd like to have a little mystery with my death," Hugues said.

"So really you have no good reason for doing something you agree is stupid," Fayne concluded. "You are really not impressing me here."

"I'm not here to impress you. All I need is for you to live on and be proof that my Well of Souls worked and I brought someone back from the dead," Hugues told her.

"How can I be proof of that?" Fayne asked.

"I…don't follow," Hugues admitted. "You were dead and I brought you back to life so you are proof that this worked. It seems pretty simple."

"But you say you don't know who I am. Unless I was really well-known, but not to you I guess, and my death was really public then how does me living prove anything to anyone? Anyone could go around claiming you brought them back to life but it doesn't _prove _anything. If you stuck around maybe you could prove it or lend the claim validity but I still don't understand any of this and to be honest I don't think your assistants do either," Fayne said.

A distraught look crossed Hugues' face. "That actually-"

The door flung open and the gnome from earlier came in. "You two still aren't gone yet? But what about our heroic sacrifice?"

"What did you come up here for if you thought we'd be long gone?" Hugues asked.

The gnome shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. I just didn't want to stand there and wait for the Tuatha to kill me, I guess. And hey! Now I can give you a two-second warning that they're right behind me!"

With that, he was pierced by an arrow and collapsed.

Hugues brushed himself off. "Well, I guess it's my turn. Remember, I brought you back to life so you owe me so find a way to prove my genius!"

"I'm not even going to do that," Fayne said. "Stop being stupid and come with me."

"No, I'm going to go do this," Hugues told her before charging at the Tuatha. They did all turn and look at him and the ceiling of the tower started collapsing for some reason cutting them off in case they decided to go after Fayne anyway.

"You know that this makes your drawing them off even more stupid, right?" Fayne called after him.

* * *

When Fayne finally made it out, she was surprised to find just how cheery everything looked. She woke up on a pile of corpses, apparently came back to life, Tuatha had just killed a bunch of gnomes she didn't know but probably owed her life, and now it was a bright and shining day. While it might be unrealistic to expect that the weather would conform to her personal drama it would still be appreciated.

She saw some injured gnomes outside of the tower but they clearly came from the same place she did and if they were Agarth surely Hugues would have mentioned it so she ignored them.

She realized she didn't actually have any money and would probably need to get some and so tried to pick some interesting looking plants but she kept somehow failing which was rather odd. Maybe she needed to learn more about picking plant things?

She walked right up to the first non-gnome that she saw, a man drinking and playing cards by himself. "I don't suppose you'd like to be incredibly convenient and be named Agarth? And be acquainted with a gnome named Hugues?"

The man nodded. "I am indeed Agarth and friend to Fomorous Hugues."

"Well I never got a first name," Fayne said, "but that's probably right. I am so glad you just happened to be out here! I had no idea how I was going to find you on such little information."

"I'm a Fateweaver," Agarth said modestly. "It's my job to be convenient."

"I think I like you," Fayne decided.

Agarth chuckled. "I'm glad. Not many do."

Fayne eyed him strangely and stepped back a little. "Oh no? Any particular reason why?"

"Oh, no, not me personally," Agarth assured her. "Actually I've got a lot of friends. But I'm a Fateweaver and it's a terribly unpopular profession."

"Unpopular as in not many people want to do it or unpopular as in no one really likes them?" Fayne asked.

"It's the same thing, isn't it?" Agarth asked rhetorically. "If no one likes them then it's not going to be a popular position to have, is it?"

Fayne quickly rallied. "Not necessarily! Maybe it's such a difficult and strenuous job that it's in high demand and everybody loves them."

"Well I can confirm it is difficult and strenuous but no one likes Fateweavers. No one. Even I don't like us," Agarth said.

"Then…why did you go into Fateweaving? And why stay in Fateweaving?" Fayne asked.

Agarth shrugged. "I thought it was supposed to be some great honor at first. They always let you think that or else they'd never be able to recruit anyone."

"And you somehow failed to notice how much everyone hated Fateweavers while you were a part of the everyone hating them?" Fayne asked pointedly.

"…Yes? And once you become a Fateweaver you can't just quit. You know how to read Fate and you can't just unlearn this skill."

"You don't have to use it," Fayne told him.

Agarth fixed her with an unimpressed look. "I would like to see you have the impulse control to resist checking fate every five minutes, I really would."

"It sounds to me like you're describing a Fate addiction," Fayne said. "Have you tried getting help?"

"From who? Everyone hates Fateweavers and if we could get help and stop being one then do you really think there would be any Fateweavers left?" Agarth challenged.

"So you're not even going to try to do something else with your life? Maybe obsess over Fate on the side if you truly can't help it?"

Agarth shook his head. "What's the point? I'm probably fated to be a Fateweaver forever anyway."

Fayne just stared at him. " 'Probably fated'? What in the…First Hugues and his need to go get himself killed and now you! Is no one capable of accepting personal responsibility or what?"

"I don't believe in personal responsibility," Agarth replied.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Shocking."

"What's the point when you have no choice in the matter? Forcing you to be responsible for things that aren't your fault seems terribly unfair."

"I don't disagree but how is your own actions not your own fault?" Fayne challenged. "I mean, I chose to walk past all the injured who escaped the tower to come over here but that was all on me. I'm not blaming anyone else for my apathy and being kind of a terrible person in this scenario."

"I feel like maybe you haven't heard of Fate," Agarth said delicately.

"Well I don't know about that but I do know that you never bothered to explain to me what Fateweaving was," Fayne said.

"Fateweavers are people who have been trained to see the tapestry of Fate. We see what is going to happen and people pay us money for this. Unfortunately, the news isn't always good so everyone hates us. With the way the world has been heading, it's usually bad. Come to think of it, it's kind of strange just how often we have to give bad news. You would think that somebody somewhere could have a nice happy future. Maybe if we just stuck to some positive things and not the inevitable death they'd be a bit happier with us? Something to consider," Agarth mused.

"Doesn't that create kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of situation?" Fayne asked. "If someone is thinking about whether to accept a marriage proposal, for instance, and they find out that they marry somebody different and turn down the proposal because of that. If they hadn't asked then maybe they would have accepted."

Agarth shook his head. "No, trust me, it doesn't work like that. People have tried. I've had a man who was so horrified at the thought that he might kill his father and marry his mother that he left home, accidentally killed his father on the road, then won the hand of a widowed queen and four kids later found out he was adopted."

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "I know I've heard that story before."

Agarth shrugged. "So what if you did? The more famous the better. You can't fight Fate."

"What if he just never got married or only married someone who wasn't old enough to have given birth to him?" Fayne challenged.

"There are spells for things like that," Agarth said. "Potions. You can never _really _be sure."

"It still sounds a little bit unlikely," Fayne said.

"Unlikely or not it's true. Which should actually make it quite likely," Agarth said. "How adorable, not believing in Fate. I almost want to tell you what's going to happen to you but you do look like you know how to use that staff."

Fayne wrinkled her nose. "No thanks."

"It may save me a flight for my life later," Agarth said. "But you said you were looking for me? You must have come from the Well of Souls. Let me guess, Hugues wanted you to tell me that he finally succeeded in bringing somebody back to life and now he's dead."

Fayne's eyes widened. "How did you know that? Wait…was he planning his whole stupid suicide thing for longer than I thought?"

"Not exactly," Agarth said. "He just came to me and asked me if he would ever succeed in bringing someone back from the dead. I had good news for once, sort of, and told him that he would but on that day he would be killed. He took it pretty well after miraculously surviving alcohol poisoning. Called it a new lease on life and went on to minor fame as a daredevil before getting back to work. Even I don't know how he didn't die with some of those other than it being Fate's will."

"So you convinced him that just because he succeeded he was going to die? That's why he insisted on dying so pointlessly!" Fayne exclaimed angrily.

"He probably just wanted to face his inevitable death bravely and not cowering," Agarth suggested. "And who can blame him?"

"Why didn't he just never try to bring someone back if that was what was going to happen?"

"We all die sometime," Agarth said reasonably. "For all he knew he'd be dying of old age when he succeeded. And he thought this was worth dying for. And who knows? If he succeeded maybe he could one day be brought back."

"What is even the point of Fateweavers?" Fayne demanded.

"I just explained it," Agarth said, offended. "And you just argued extensively with me about it. Do you have no short-term memory?"

"No, I actually think my short-term memory is okay," Fayne said. "But ask me again in an hour. I just don't see the point in knowing your fate if you can't change it, especially if you're going to fail. What if you told Hugues that he was never going to succeed. Would he still have tried? According to you he would have had to."

"We were consulted by great leaders and kings," Agarth said wistfully. "Well…I wasn't but earlier in our order's history we were. They would ask things like 'Will this invasion I'm planning succeed' or 'will the crops be plentiful this year' and plan accordingly."

"_How_?" Fayne asked. "If the invasion was fated to fail then that means it was fated to happen, wasn't it?"

"I think you're just putting too much thought into this," Agarth accused.

"And I think that if you all want to run around pretending that you aren't responsible for your own life you could at least try a bit harder with the rationale!" Fayne countered.

"Not literally everything is set in stone. It's not set in stone that you must stand here and argue with me about the existence of Fate, for example. How you die will be written in stone, perhaps if you get married or have children or any other big accomplishments. The details do not matter. A king could hear that he would conquer an area or not conquer it and if he were fated not to conquer it he might as well save everyone the trouble and not try in the first place," Agarth explained.

Fayne perked up at that. "You say that you can see what will happen to people? Can you see the past? Because I would actually _really _like to know how I died."

Agarth's eyes lit up. "I'm sorry, I can only see the future. But how you died? So you're the one! I guess that makes sense since you're not a gnome and came from the tower but I didn't want to assume."

"Everyone there did."

"I was here waiting to meet with you. Since I've discovered who you are, I should probably warn you that Fate says we will be attacked by Tuatha," Agarth said.

Fayne glanced behind her. "You're sure you're not just saying that because you can see them approaching?"

Agarth didn't answer but he did put quite a bit of force into his first blow against the attackers.

After a few hits, Fayne began to see some strange purple lines emanating from the Tuatha. She focused on those, a giant ethereal sword appeared, and she used that to kill it. It made her feel a little lightheaded but also sort of humming with energy. Well that was abnormal. But what hadn't been ever since the amnesia? And who was to say things were any less weird before to land her in such a situation sans memory?

"What was that?" Agarth cried out, apparently not taking the weirdness in stride like she was. So she was getting too weird for Mr. 'nothing I do has anything to do with me.'

"I don't know. I think I'll probably do it again the next time I see that weird purple thing, though," Fayne said.

"What are you?" Agarth demanded.

"I'm a dokkalfar. I know it's hard to tell dokkalfar from ljosalfar sometimes but I don't see why that's relevant here," Fayne said.

"That wasn't what I meant! You can't just do that! I'm used to seeing the threads of Fate but not like that and not manipulated! Fate…it can't be changed. You can't change it. You just did. You changed the way the world was supposed to work!" He looked quite distraught though that all sounded pretty good to her.

"How was that? Were we fated to be killed by the Tuatha?"

"Well, no," Hugues conceded. "But you weren't supposed to kill them like that!"

Fayne threw her hands up in the air. "And what happened to 'the details don't matter'? If I was fated to kill them and I killed them then it's fine."

But Agarth was shaking his head. "This is all wrong. Tell you what, I'm going to do a Fate reading for you. Having learned my lesson the last time I was nearly executed by a group of angry soon-to-be Tuatha victims, I won't tell you how you'll die again."

"I would _really _rather you didn't," Fayne said. "For all I know you're right about people having no free will and my path is set so the least you can do is allow me my illusions and not tell me what life has got in store for me."

"Sorry, no can do," Agarth apologized, not sounding sorry at all. "I'm curious and you can't stop me."

"I could always hit you with my staff."

"Isn't that a little extreme?" Agarth asked, laying the cards out. "I'm just looking at cards."

Fayne glared at him and crossed her arms.

"Well that's odd," Agarth said, shuffling the cards and laying them out again. "I don't see anything for you."

"How do you not see anything for me?" Fayne asked reasonably. "You are looking at cards. And how precise can you possibly be with things like 'on the day you succeed in bringing someone back from the dead you'll die' if you're going off of fortune telling cards?"

"It would take years of training to explain it to you," Agarth said disdainfully.

"I'm just saying this all sounds incredibly sketchy."

"I'm not saying I believe that this is true but…what if you can control your own life?" Agarth said, lowering his voice to a whisper.

"You mean like a normal person?" Fayne asked.

"There is literally nothing normal about this," Agarth said. "Unless it turns out you're an alcohol-induced hallucination in which case this is pretty typical. But you did kill those Tuatha. Unless _they _were hallucinations, too!"

"The fact that you find this to be a plausible explanation worries me," Fayne said.

"The fact that you appear to be immune from Fate worries _me_," Agarth said. "You can't just be some sort of a Fateless One. Has this sort of thing ever happened to you before?"

"Honestly, I don't know," Fayne admitted. "I don't remember anything before coming back to life. In fact, I have to take it on faith that I was even dead."

Agarth's eyebrows shot up. "And so the plot thickens! That does remind me…you know who I am but I never got around to asking who you are. Quite negligent of me. You say you don't remember who you are…do you at least have something you want me to call you? Because if not then I have to say I think Agarthiza is a lovely name."

Fayne groaned."You don't say. But don't worry, Hugues was similarly concerned by my lack of a name – I'm just some random dokkalfar after all – and so I came up with one. Until we find out my real name, or assuming my real name is stupid, you can call me Fayne."

"Fayne," Agarth repeated thoughtfully, stroking his beard. "I get it. Like Fateless One. The first part of the first word and the last part of the last word."

"That…did not occur to me," Fayne said, perturbed. "I guess kind of."

"It must be Fate," Agarth declared grandly before he frowned. "Except maybe not if it's you. This is just too weird. Maybe I broke something. Or I could blame you."

"How _kind_."

"Let's just be sure. I know this guy, Arden. He's kind of a terrible person but he's the best damn Fateweaver I know. Go see him and see if he can see anything. If he can then mystery solved and I'll try and lay off the liquor. If not then there's nothing wrong with me so either way win-win," Agarth said.

"Why?"

Agarth blinked. "Why what?"

"Why should I go see this guy?" Fayne asked.

"Why…because you have no Fate, of course! Or no Fate that I can see! This is rather a big deal!"

Fayne shrugged. "I don't think that it is. I don't really care. I don't like the thought of Fate anyway and I really have more pressing concerns such as finding out who I am."

"Do you have any other leads or really any other concrete plans?" Agarth asked knowingly.

Fayne opened her mouth and then deflated. "No…"

"Then you might as well go get this sorted. Who knows? Maybe I'm wrong and it is your Fate to find out who you are. This could help," Agarth said enticingly.

Fayne sighed. "Fine, whatever. I'll see if I can make my way over there. Um, where is 'there' exactly?"

"Oh, just Arden's home. It's to the east," Agarth said helpfully.

"So are a lot of things I would imagine," Fayne said dryly. "You can't be more specific than that?"

"No, sorry, can't. I have to go help the injured. Fate said so," Agarth said, strolling off.

"You're not all that invested in solving this puzzle, are you?" Fayne called after him. She was not going to demean herself by chasing after him.

Agarth glanced back over his shoulder. "Don't worry; he's a Fateweaver. I'm sure something incredibly convenient will happen and you'll find him."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Fayne walked into town to see a crowd forming around something.

"Excuse me," she said, "where am I?"

"Gorhart," the guard said. "Now move along."

"Move along from standing right here or do you want me to leave town or find a building to go in or…?"

"I mean someone attacked this poor fae and now every idiot in town is coming out to gawk," the guard replied, shaking her head in annoyance. "It's really not helping anything. I'm telling everyone to go away but no one is listening. This doesn't involve you and we don't need your help."

"Oh, well I'm absolutely willing to listen," Fayne said cheerfully. "I really don't want to get dragged into your problems." She turned to go.

"Wait," an official-looking man who had been kneeling by the body said, standing up. "My name is Herc Adwold and I'm the warden here. As such it's kind of my problem when things like this happen."

Fayne frowned. "I…don't know why you needed to stop me before I left and make me aware of that but it's good to know and I'll definitely remember. Bye now."

"I wasn't finished," Herc said, crossing his arms. "Don't make me accuse you of being a fae-hater. I am fully prepared to judge you for that."

"I don't really care."

"I will follow you around while judging you until you do care," Herc threatened.

"As the warden don't you have more pressing responsibilities?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"As the warden that distinction is entirely up to me," Herc said.

Fayne sighed. "Fine. Please go on."

"Now this poor creature has clearly been beaten near to death! Just look at her!" Herc cried out, gesturing dramatically towards her. "I'm not sure we should just leave her out in the road like that but I don't know about moving her either so we'll just leave her here until I figure it out."

Fayne spared a glance at the fae at her feet. "Are you sure she's been that severely beaten? I would imagine someone who has been would maybe stay still. She's rolling every which way like she's just had a bad stomach ache. And I don't see any bruising or blood."

"She's a fae; they aren't like us."

"But then what makes you think she's been beaten to near-death? Did you witness it and do nothing?" Fayne asked.

Herc coughed uncomfortably. "I suspect, judging from her wounds, that she was attacked with daggers. But who can really say? Certainly not all those people who just stood around watching it. And I was definitely not one of those people."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Whatever. So is that it or…?"

"Actually, it's not. I think she's going to die. I don't know how to treat a fae injury. They're so much more resilient than humans and they come back from the dead and everything but we really don't want her to die because then we might get in trouble over this while nobody is likely to care if she lives. A human might die from this!"

He seemed to be looking expectantly at her so Fayne reluctantly said, "I have a health potion here if you'd like it."

"No, no, that's no good. Who knows if it would even work?" Herc asked.

"You would. If you tried it. It probably wouldn't make the situation worse," Fayne suggested pointedly.

Herc shook his head. "No, that won't do at all. We want to keep this quiet so can you go ask the fae that lives on the hill and doesn't think we know about her how to fix this?"

"How do you know she doesn't know you know about her?" Fayne asked.

"Sometimes she walks through town and acts like she thinks we literally can't see her. I suspect she might be a bit touched in the head. Or I guess all fae could be like that; I'm no expert. But she's a fae so she should know how to cure fae."

"Like how any mortal would know how to cure a mortal just by virtue of being mortal," Fayne said sarcastically.

Herc nodded. "Exactly like that."

"Why don't you go?" Fayne demanded.

"I'm kind of a coward in case that's not been made perfectly clear," Herc confessed.

Fayne paused. "Since you're taking responsibility for your own cowardice and not blaming it on Fate I think I'll actually help you. Plus this doesn't sound like it's too difficult."

Herc perked up. "Blaming Fate? Is that something we can do?"

Fayne glared at him. "_No_."

She headed toward the gate leading out of town and passed by a woman ranting about how sexist the mission in town was.

"I bet they wouldn't have locked their doors two minutes before the attack if it was a _male _fae!" she accused. "And how did they even know the attack was coming? And what's this nonsense about Mitharu only loving men? What's the point of a god that only likes one gender? There's nothing in the books that say that but they still insist that women can't join their order."

Against her better judgment, Fayne slowed down. "Why would you even want to be a part of an order if they think like that?"

"It's not about wanting to be surrounded by people who don't want me around, of course I don't want that," she said. "I'm Zelda, by the way. I do want to change their minds or at least change the practice of the orders if a stubborn few refuse to get with it. But what I want most of all is to be able to, as a devout follower of Mitharu, join their ranks. But nobody cares. Nobody even likes the mission here anyway. I really need to get a copy of their scripture so that I can prove to them there's no basis for denying me."

Fayne winced. It did seem like a really good cause but on the other hand this was how side quests happened. "Point me in the direction of that scripture and I'll see what I can do."

Zelda beamed and told her though Fayne decided to put that off until that night. She didn't know if she'd ever stolen before but it seemed like a more nocturnal activity to her.

She went over to the gate and the man standing beside it seemed to think she wanted to talk to him.

"Hello, I am Father Dynwel," Father Dynwel introduced. "Welcome to St. Odwig's Perpetual Mission."

"Isn't this the gate out of town?" Fayne asked.

"I…well, yes."

"What is St. Odwig's perpetual mission?"

Dynwel looked a little uncomfortable. "Trying to convert the fae to the worship of Mitharu."

"Ah. That would explain why it's perpetual. Have you had a single convert?" Fayne asked.

"No. But it's not so bad! If we had had a convert then it wouldn't have been so impressive when we convert them all!" Dynwel exclaimed.

"That's certainly optimistic," Fayne said diplomatically.

"I'd love to welcome you in but we're not letting anyone in right now unless they solve a problem for us," Dynwel said.

"And the fact that I'm a woman just makes you less likely to invite me in, doesn't it?" Fayne said pointedly.

"It doesn't hel-I mean, I have nothing against women. I love women. Why my own mother was a woman!" Dynwel assured her. "But the teachings of Mitharu say nothing about women as members of our order and that clearly means that Mitharu would be against them."

"Does it say anything about letting men in?"

Dynwel shook his head. "No but if we're already keeping women out then men _must _be allowed to join otherwise there would be no members. Think!"

"You disgust me," Fayne informed him.

"That may be so but you showed up and I need help so I'm calling Fate and there's nothing you can do about it," Dynwel told her. "Brother Egan ran away to go be a fae or something else stupid a few days ago. I'm worried he'll get himself killed and we have sort of a perception problem that hurts recruitment. Plus our mission is often deemed 'quixotic' by the people we talk to and I don't know what that means but it never leads to them signing up. Will you go find him and drag him back here regardless of what he wants for me?"

Fayne gaped wordlessly at him for a moment. "If I spot someone who looks like they might be him I'll tell him you want him to come home."

"That's all I ask," Dynwel said magnanimously.

Then he finally got out of her way and so was able to leave in peace. Or sort of in peace. She was harassed every five feet by wolves, bears, and sprites out to kill her but at least they weren't asking anything of her. Except that one guy who claimed he was a wolf and wanted her help turning back into a wolf. She helped him because she was honestly curious to see if that was true or not.

She eventually found a blonde man just standing around by himself and thought she might be onto something.

"Brother Egan?" she ventured.

The man shook his head. "It's just Egan now. Being a part of the mission was really boring and so I left. Wait, no that's not right. It's actually Camaran the Eternal. I know you're heavily armed and I'm, well, not but I met some fae so I think I'll be safe to call you a mortal vagabond. And I'm going to assume you have no home because why else would you be here? You do have some nice armor, though."

"Apparently it used to belong to Shepard," Fayne said modestly. "I found it in a chest. Someone mysterious left it there for me but I don't care enough to investigate."

"Who's Shepard?"

"I don't now but she sounds_ amazing_," Fayne said. "The leader of your little mission thinks you're out here getting killed or something trying to be a fae and I really don't care because you're an ass so I'm just going to leave you to it."

"You can't just do that!" Egan objected. "I'm probably going to die out here."

"I'll…escort you back to Gorhart if you want," Fayne offered.

"Nope, can't do it. My new fae friends Finna and Arbos have promised me that they'd share their fae magic with me if I go get the Selkie Veil from some cave. I haven't done it yet because that would be suicide but with you I'm sure I stand a slightly better chance," Egan said.

"I was going to go but now I have some questions. Why would these fae want to give you magic? If they were even capable of doing that which I'm not convinced that they are," Fayne said.

"Maybe they are just very giving individuals or recognize my inherent magic-deserving qualities," Egan said, completely uncurious.

"And if they're so powerful why would they need you to go do this for them instead of doing it themselves?" Fayne asked.

Egan opened his mouth.

"And if you say maybe you're fated to do this and they're not then I'm going to hit you," she threatened.

Egan shrugged. "Then I've got nothing. Except maybe they're testing me to see how badly I want this."

"I'm going to need to go yell at these people so I'm going to need to keep you alive long enough to find them and do this," Fayne realized. "Let's go."

"Come with me if you want but even though you'll be saving my life and helping me succeed, don't expect any sort of reward or even basic gratitude from me," Egan warned.

"At least you're upfront about being an asshole," Fayne muttered.

"Okay, bye then." With that, he ran off.

"Bye then?" Fayne repeated. "Egan, you idiot! We're supposed to go together!"

* * *

Egan might have been willing to do his share of the fighting but he also hung back and let her try to get the Selkie Veil. Which she did after being electrocuted by this strange glowing circular thing that rose from the ground. Twice.

And it appeared his habit of saying things and then trying to run away for no apparent reason wasn't going away.

But finally he led her to Finna and Arbos' camp. Finna came out to greet him. She was an alfar.

"Oh, crap, someone who isn't Egan," Finna said. "This could be a problem."

Fayne gave Egan a deeply unimpressed look. "Seriously?"

"What?" Egan asked blankly.

"This isn't a fae. I couldn't tell you if she's a dokkalfar or a ljosalfar because, let's be honest, we're basically the same thing-"

"Careful," Finna cautioned. "You could get thrown out for that kind of heresy! We've got important philosophical differences, we have."

"And that somehow makes us different species because…?" Fayne asked. When no answer was forthcoming, she went on, "But I know that she is definitely not a fae. How did you not know that?"

Egan's jaw dropped. "Really? You aren't a fae?"

"You know," Finna said conversationally, "I really do think that I could convince this idiot that I was even now. But that might just be too sad for words. No, you fool, I'm not."

"How could you possibly not know that?" Fayne demanded. "Haven't you seen alfar before? Surely you're not that insulated. Why didn't you think I was a fae?"

"Well you didn't claim you were a fae," Egan said matter-of-factly. "Besides, it's not like I've ever seen a fae before."

"I guess you were probably gone before that one woman was attacked," Fayne conceded. "But what about that one fae that lives on the hill that everyone knows about?"

"I kind of forgot about her," Egan admitted.

"Oh, honestly, what's next? You claim it's perfectly reasonable that you thought Finna here was a fae because fae have magic and so she used magic to appear like a non-fae?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

Egan brightened. "Ah, yes, that's exactly it! Brilliant!"

Fayne groaned. "Now I've given him ideas. I hate it when I give the people I'm arguing with ideas."

"I really don't care about any of this," Finna informed them. "Just give me the Selkie Veil which is rightfully mine or I'm going to kill you."

"In what way, exactly, is it rightfully yours?" Fayne challenged.

"It's rightfully mine in the way that I want it so therefore should get to have it," Finna said.

"You can certainly try to kill us. You'll probably succeed in killing Egan. But since I only came along with all of this to try and save his life, I wouldn't recommend it. Since you couldn't get this yourself and had to rely on others to do it for you, do you _really _want to kill the person capable of fetching this when you couldn't?" Fayne asked, crossing her arms.

Finna looked pained. "I want to say no, but on the other hand my brother will never accept 'I didn't want to die' as an excuse. Could you maybe come up with something else?"

"Are you kidding me right now?"

Finna shrugged. "I only wish I was. But you really have no idea how annoying he can be when he thinks I screwed up."

"Well then the, um, veil is cursed or something," Fayne said lamely.

"I'll take it," FInna decided. "Goodbye then. If I ever see you again, I'll have to try to kill you so please – for my sake – let's not let that happen."

"Well now I feel stupid," Egan admitted. "But in my defense, before I came to Gorhart I never knew anyone outside of my immediate family and we're not fae."

"That's not much of a defense. How do you not know anyone outside of your immediate family?" Fayne asked. "Were you just not allowed to leave the house or something?"

Egan coughed, embarrassed. "I was not. They thought I might fall down in a ditch somewhere and die."

"Then how did they ever allow you to leave and come here?" Fayne asked.

"They didn't, exactly," Egan admitted. "I went out for a walk one day and couldn't find my way back so I decided 'fuck it, I'm going to see the big city.' And so I did."

Fayne laughed. "Gorhart, are you kidding me?"

"It's bigger than my house," Egan said defensively.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "I'll escort you back so you actually make it back there. Don't go running off again."

"Oh, I definitely won't. I learned my lesson about trying to assert the slightest bit of independence," Egan assured her.

"Normally I'm not sure I'd agree with that but in this case…good. Just…good."

Fayne escorted him back and took the time to snatch the book Zelda wanted for her. Apparently it was really, really simple to change Dynwel's mind as when Fayne got back from getting her armor repaired Zelda was already a full-fledged member.

She set back out, hoping to find the fae this time. It seemed almost anticlimactic when she finally found the fae sitting serenely on top of a hill just where Herc said she'd be. It appeared not being very good at directions was something else she was learning about herself. Since her list was quite short thanks to the amnesia, it wasn't such a bad thing.

"May your hollow gods keep you, mortal," the fae said. "I'm called Aery."

"May your hollow gods keep you," Fayne repeated. "I'm a little confused here. That sort of sounds like a polite greeting and was probably what you were going for but you also called my gods hollow. I don't think I even have any gods since…well, I don't think I do. But that's really quite rude."

"I'm trying to sensitive to your mortal culture," Aery explained. "Is it my fault you worship hollow gods?"

"No but you don't have to call them hollow regardless of whether or not they are!"

"Is that so? Hm, mortals do take offense at the strangest things," Aery said. "Very well, I will cease to refer to your hollow gods as hollow gods."

"Thank you," Fayne said dryly.

"I've been spending all of my time staring at the villagers and so know who all of them are and you are not one of them. Did you seek me out to see if I, being a fae, just happen to know how to easily defeat the Tuatha and for some reason did not see fit to share this news even though my people are fighting them as well?" Aery asked. "Because that's kind of offensive."

"I can see why that would be," Fayne agreed. "Do you get that a lot?"

Aery rolled her eyes. "Like you wouldn't believe."

"I'm not here about that and I trust that, should you mysteriously stumble upon that kind of secret, you'll do the right thing," Fayne said. "I'm here because of that attacked fae."

"Oh, I saw the whole thing," Aery said, unconcerned.

"You too? Seriously?" Fayne asked, annoyed. "Is anybody capable of doing anything around here?"

"Hey, it's not just a Gorhart thing," Aery said, affronted. "I can tell you her name is Iluvia but that's pretty much it. I don't know who did it despite witnessing the entire thing because all mortals look the same to me."

"_That's _offensive," Fayne said. "And how can you say that when you said that you recognize that my face is not the face of someone living here?"

"I…that's a good point," Aery admitted. "You're closer than they were when they were attacking her?"

"Is that a question?"

"I don't see what you want me to do," Aery said loudly. "If she's fated to return to the Great Cycle then she's fated to return to the Great Cycle."

"And if she's fated to get help because you decide not to be useless and actually tell me how to help her?" Fayne asked pointedly.

"That did not occur to me," Aery said, surprised. "I have no way of knowing which is the case since I don't want to pay for a Fateweaver. Well if she is fated to live she is fated to live so I might as well tell you what to do and we'll see what happens."

"I'm all ears."

"Give her a really strong healing potion," Aery told her.

Fayne was sure she didn't hear that correctly. "I'm sorry, did you just tell me to use a health potion? Because I tried that earlier and Herc wouldn't let me because he didn't know what it would do."

"Well I don't know what it would do, either, but I can't imagine it would make things worse," Aery said reasonably. "We don't have access to any fae healers. I'm rather curious to see if it would work. Just make sure it is stronger than you would need for a human in the same situation since human bodies are so frail."

"Now that just doesn't make any sense at all. If human bodies are frail and fae bodies are stronger, why do we need a stronger potion for fae?"

"Because…it takes more to put a fae in that condition so it will take more for them to heal," Aery offered.

"This was such a waste of time," Fayne complained before heading back down to heal Iluvia. Herc had finally moved her to the inn, it seemed. "Hey, I'm back. It turns out that we should just give her a healing potion. I'd give her like three or something because I can't be bothered to go find a stronger one. Her name is Iluvia by the way. And the fae on the hill is Aery. Just in case anybody cares. Which I kind of doubt."

"Just in time!" Herc greeted, taking the potions and giving them to Iluvia. "If you were any later it would have been too late."

"Stop pretending you know anything about fae anatomy," Fayne said, rolling her eyes.

"Someone has got to go to the fae and inform them that Iluvia was injured, because they probably don't know, and that it was people here but it's still not our fault. One more little misunderstanding like this and we won't just be strangers to the fae; we'll be enemies."

"How did you even get put in charge of _anything_?" Fayne wondered. "Look, if they don't know do we really have to tell them? Is it some sort of fae thing that if one of them gets injured someone must report it?"

"I don't know that it is but then I don't know that it _isn't_," Herc said.

"That is a very unproductive attitude to have when it comes to fae customs," Fayne said seriously. "And honestly I think there's going to be a bit of a step between not knowing who we are and declaring us mortal enemies."

"I wish I could be so sure. Just in case not reporting this leads to them coming here to kill us all, can you please show how forthright and honest we are by telling them what happened? And hopefully blaming bears?" Herc asked.

"I don't know…"

"She's a member of the House of Ballads. They're legendary fae heroes who are the most devoted and intense LARP-ers you will ever meet. They're even willing to _die _if need be!" Herc exclaimed.

"Larper?"

"LARP-er. Live action role player. They take a legendary role and just enact it from now until eternity. Or they retire and someone else does it. Maybe being willing to die for it would be more impressive for people who don't come back to life but it's still pretty damn impressive," Herc said. "I wanted to join when I was younger."

"Now I kind of want to see it…" Fayne admitted. "I doubt they'd let me join since I'm not a fae but what a thing to see!"

"If they found out that one of their own was killed by a mortal they would come and slaughter us all mercilessly. And then if they ever have to recreate this tale could regularly go around killing people. We don't need another Tuahta," Herc told her.

"But…she's not dying. She's going to be fine."

"I don't believe you," Herc said stubbornly.

Iluvia stirred and sat up. "What happened?"

Fayne looked pointedly at him.

"What?" Herc asked blankly.

"How do you know this wasn't part of some reenactment anyway?" Fayne wondered.

"Because it's never happened before," Herc said. "I'm sure you're wondering how I know all of this about her since I didn't even know her name but that's a question I don't really feel like answering."

"Of _course _you don't."

"Or I guess we could go ask the Warsworn to help us but then we'd have to pay them and I don't want to do that. You could always do it if you wanted," Herc hinted.

"Why is any of this even my problem?" Fayne demanded. "I don't live here and I'm not staying."

"You're in just as deep as we are," Herc said grimly.

"I'm really not."

"It's a perfect excuse to go meet the House of Ballads."

"I…fine. I'll go. But I might not even bother telling them about Iluvia so there," Fayne told him.

"I'm sure you'll do the right thing," Herc said, completely unconcerned.

He was probably right which just annoyed her and she stormed off.

"Hey, you," a heavily-armored guy leaning up against the wall of the inn said.

Fayne stopped. "Please don't tell me you want me to do something or you want me to fight you. I'm really not in the mood."

The man laughed. "Oh, not at all. I'm just in charge of recruiting for the Warsworn."

"The what?"

"We're a bunch of paid soldiers, basically, but we get a lot of respect and a great reputation and some cool titles," the man explained. "My name is Ost Odura. Recruitment is a bit difficult since, despite our desperate need for manpower, we are contemptuous of every new recruit and act like you're going to just get yourself and everyone else killed no matter how provably competent you are so my method of recruitment is basically to stand here and call out to people who I can tell are armed and see if they're interested."

"You're really selling it," Fayne deadpanned.

Odura shrugged. "I just get paid to stand here not by how many successful recruits I get. They're lucky I bother giving the spiel at all. If you did manage to become a Warsworn people would think you were awesome."

"Being thought of as awesome is always good," Fayne said consideringly.

"It's really simple. The Red Legion has two brothers named Osgar and Mendgar Krast and I need you to kill them and bring me their daggers," Odura said. "Then I'll write you a letter of recommendation and you can take it to Shieldring Keep and they'll at least give you a shot."

"How am I supposed to know who these two are and how would you know if the daggers are really theirs or not?" Fayne asked. "Do they engrave their name on the daggers or something?"

To her surprise, Odura nodded. "They do, actually. It's kind of odd but apparently it's a big Red Legion thing."

"Ah, well, I'll definitely think about it," Fayne told him.

She was a bit perturbed when she went to go stock up on potions and the first thing the gnome proprietor asked was whether she felt deathly ill.

"Ah, no, I don't think so. Why? Is there some kind of plague going around here? Do I look ill? Are you just trying to sell me a potion?" Fayne asked suspiciously.

"No, you look fine. Well, scratch that, actually you look like you're about to just keel over. But I've been seeing symptoms everywhere so I may not be the best judge and you're probably fine. It's flu season anyway which just makes this all the more nerve-wracking. We could all be killed. I just don't think the situation could be worse," the gnome said. "Ah, but I did not introduce myself! My name is Nanne Hanri."

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Fayne," Fayne said automatically. "This all sounds very bad but I think a worse situation would be if everyone really was dying or dead. Why do you think everyone could die?"

"Why ask questions when you could not hope to understand the answer? It's clear your prowess is not with wit but with weapons," Nanne said rudely.

Fayne drew herself up, offended. "Fine, be that way. See if I care."

"Wait!" Nanne called after her. "Don't you care that everybody here is going to die?"

Fayne hesitated. "I feel like I would be a bad person if I said not really since I just got here and it's not my problem and you were a total bitch to me completely unprovoked."

"I don't see how it's at all bitchy to tell you that you're too stupid to understand things," Nanne said blankly.

Fayne forced a smile. "Well trust me, it is. Maybe not to a great genius like you undoubtedly are but us mere mortals don't take kindly to being called stupid and you don't even know anything about me. Just because I may be good at killing things, which is also an unfair assumption, doesn't mean that I can't also be an intellectual!"

"I have never heard of someone who is smart being good at killing things," Nanne said. "It just doesn't happen."

"Gnome society must be weird," Fayne deduced. "But either way, you don't live surrounded by gnomes so I'm sure that can't be true."

"You've met Herc," Nanne said pointedly.

"…Herc isn't everyone," Fayne said.

"So sorry if I offended you or whatever. The point is that I created a chemical weapon to kill the Tuatha but it went missing and so did my apprentice Karth. Whoops. He left a note saying something about running off to join the Red Legion so I think it's safe to say they've got their hands in this. Can you go get it back for me?"

"And you can't do it because…?" Fayne prompted.

"For someone who claims they aren't stupid, you apparently didn't listen when I told you I was smart and so couldn't fight," Nanne sniffed.

"No, I was listening but I just think it's stupid," Fayne said. "But I guess I don't want everybody to die. It would serve you right if they did, though." She went outside and raised her voice. "Okay, everybody, I'm going to go kill the Red Legion. Does anybody else have a vested interest in me doing this and maybe something else they'd want done? Just Red Legion connected, mind you, I don't have time to run everyone's errands."

"Could have fooled me," Dynwel spoke up. "Don't you agree, Sister Zelda?"

Zelda looked innocent. "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean, Brother Dynwel?"

"Oh, did you guys get over your sexism then?" Fayne asked, interested.

"I was never sexist," Zelda claimed.

"She proved it wasn't in the book. And though I already knew that, somehow this made a difference and once we changed the rules there's no point holding on to the old beliefs anymore. It's just not logical," Dynwel explained.

"Well…okay, then. Good for you," Fayne said.

A man stepped forward. "You're sure this is okay? I don't want to be a bother."

"People are already being a bother asking me to go completely wipe out the Red Legion so I'm sure one more task won't hurt," Fayne said indifferently.

Nanne stuck her head out her door. "That's not _precisely _what-"

"Oh, I'm sorry, what did you want me to do again?" Fayne interrupted.

"Never mind," Nanne said, going back inside.

"Well since you're offering…My name is Brother Delf. I know this might be hard to believe but I used to be kind of a terrible person. In fact, I was even with the Red Legion! But I couldn't live like that anymore and found Mitharu so I became a brother here," Delf said.

Fayne looked horrified. "Don't say that!"

"Don't say what?" Delf asked. "And why?"

"Don't you dare make me worry that any Red Legion people I kill could one day have an epiphany about their evil ways and repent or could be working up the courage to leave," Fayne warned. "Don't you dare. I'm already going to claim self-defense because I'm sure they'll attack me even if I'm going with the intent of killing them all. Don't make this morally gray!"

"I'm…sorry?" Delf said, confused. "I'm sure they're all very bad people."

Fayne crossed her arms. "Good."

"The Red Legion wouldn't have as many members as they do if people could just walk away whenever they feel like it," Delf said seriously. "You can't leave or they'll hunt you down. Three of us wanted to leave, however, so we faked our deaths and ran off. We always suspected that we might be found, though, and now we have."

Fayne held up a hand. "Sorry, hate to interrupt you, but if you faked your death then why did you suspect someone might track you down? Why would they track down a corpse?"

"I, uh, well we all kind of kept our daggers. It occurred to us afterwards that we really should've left them somewhere but then it might be hard because we already needed to have no body so if we just left the dagger lying around with no body it might be suspicious. Plus do you know how long it took to engrave my name on that dagger and have it be legible?" Delf demanded. "So I got a letter the other day. He said I can live if I kill the other two and bring him their daggers."

"I wonder if they got a note as well or if he didn't know where they were and so wants you to hunt them down for him," Fayne said.

"I don't think it matters. Well, it might if it keeps them from coming for me. Point is I need them killed and the daggers taken as proof to the Red Legion. I'd go myself but then I'd have to kill people and I don't trust them not to kill me anyway. If you go I have a chance at being forgiven and the leader keeping his word without taking the risk," Delf explained.

"But wait…if I said I was going to kill all of the Red Legion that obviously means the leader, too. Why would I need to kill the other two deserters if I'm just going to kill the last guy?" Fayne asked reasonably.

Delf winced. "I'm not saying that I doubt that you can single-handedly kill everyone or anything, even though you've got to admit that that's pretty ridiculous, but you, um, sort of need to have the daggers as proof before he'll let you meet with him."

Fayne held up two fingers. "Two things. One, I have no intention of asking to meet with him. I'm just going to kill everyone. And two, I could just lie about the daggers."

"Ah, well, I suppose you could do that. But what if a second-in-command or someone wants to see the daggers first? No, it's just better to kill them and then go to the Red Legion. One of them is just crazy. I don't even really remember why he wanted to leave the Red Legion. I guess he wanted to kill who he wanted to kill without the orders and the structure. The other one is a good man, like me. He's still struggling with his demons and is actually still here in town. We go for a drink sometimes. Shame it had to end this way."

"It really _doesn't_ have to end this way," Fayne told him, frustrated. "And I'm not sure that I'd say that someone was a good man like you when _you're _planning on having him killed out of sheer, I don't even know, laziness? Unoriginality?"

"Look, you don't have to help me," Delf said, getting annoyed himself. "You could always just go and leave me to my fate because Mitharu knows I won't actually deal with my own problems like a grown-up. It's just that you offered."

"But if I kill the Red Legion they can't kill you first and even if I miss a few they'll be a little busy to be worrying about you!" Fayne pointed out. She sighed. "Fine, whatever. I suppose I did offer. But you're really, really bad at being pious if you're still willing to hire someone to kill people for you."

Delf drew back. "Who said anything about hiring?"

Fayne closed her eyes and counted to ten. "Do you have any idea where to find them?"

"Oh, sure, I'll just mark where they are on your map," Delf said, holding out his hand for said map.

Fayne started. "I have a map? I have a map! That should make this so much easier! But don't actually write on it. I'm going to need to use this long after I've dealt with you. Just point to where it is and I'll try and remember."

"But what if you're doing twenty quests all at once?" Delf asked. "Do you really think you'll be able to remember where everything is?"

"Why would I agree to do twenty quests all at once?" Fayne countered. "That sounds like a terrible idea."

"You say that now but just wait until you agree to find peasant clothes or rat meat for someone and they refuse to stop pestering you for more and considering your task completed no matter how many times you come through for them," Delf said.

"In that case I'd just get another piece of paper and write down where they're supposed to be there," Fayne replied. "If I really had twenty quests I needed to mark the location of on my map then chances are my map would be utterly unreadable anyway."

"Ugnar Odgray is the troubled one and he's actually right here in town," Delf said, pointing to the spot on the map. "Itran the Shade is the crazy one and while I'm not _entirely _positive where he is, there's been enough complaints and rumors that I'm fairly certain that he's here."

"Is Ugnar Odgray his real name or his alias?" Fayne asked.

Delf stared at her. "I don't get your meaning."

"Well if he's really faked his own death to escape a gang and is trying not to be noticed, he can't possibly be going by his real name, can he?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "Similarly, I'm assuming Delf isn't your real name because using your real name is just stupid and just asking for the Red Legion to find out that you aren't really dead."

"I…really _really _wish that you had been with us when we were faking our deaths," Delf said ruefully. "Perhaps then we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place."

"Both?" Fayne realized, horrified. She pinched the bridge of her nose. "You know, I can't deal with this. I really can't. I'm really not even sure that you deserve to survive this, for moral and intelligence reasons, but I already said I'd help so I'll deal with this."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

She went off to find Ugnar first. He was sleeping outside with the pigs and the sight made Fayne reconsider exactly how kind she was planning on being.

"Excuse me," she said loudly, hoping to wake him up. It took a few tries but then he just stood up casually to face her which was a much better reaction that she would have had. "Your name is Ugnar, isn't it? I'd like to advise that in the future if you're trying to fake your own death and start over you should probably change your name."

"That does sound like good advice," Ugnar said thoughtfully. "Any particular reason that you think that I might have need of it?"

"Well I was talking to Delf and-" Fayne began.

"Delf?" Ugnar interrupted. "I always knew he'd come for me eventually. He's kind of a terrible person, you know."

"Oh, I know," Fayne agreed grimly.

"But to hire a sword instead of killing me himself…Well you won't get my dagger without a fight!" Ugnar said threatening, his dagger suddenly in his hand.

"I wouldn't go so far as to say 'hired'," Fayne said. "And yeah, obviously I don't expect you to just stand there while I kill you. But since I'm planning to just kill whoever the leader of the Red Legion is in the first place-"

"Red Idward," Ugnar cut in.

Fayne paused. "Really? That's a stupid name."

Ugnar shrugged. "He has red hair."

"And? It's not that uncommon. It's not like he has green hair or anything," Fayne said. "Did he name the entire gang after his hair color?"

"He's very proud of it," Ugnar told her.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever. Anyway now I feel even more like killing this guy and all of his followers. I'm not even sure why I'm bothering with this dagger business. But since I am and I'm not as terrible as Delf, how about you just give me your dagger and I'll say I killed you?"

Ugnar shook his head. "I can't do that. I'll need some way to protect myself if anyone comes after me. Even if Delf doesn't or you get to the Red Legion in time there's always Itran."

"That is a good point," Fayne admitted reluctantly. "I know! How about I give you a new dagger to replace the one I took?"

"That sounds good to me," Ugnar agreed.

Fayne held out a few daggers, Ugnar took one, and Fayne pocketed his dagger.

"May I say that I am so glad that you were the one dealing with this and not Delf?"

"I can see why you'd say that even though I'd just as soon rather not be involved," Fayne replied. She went to go find Itran next.

He started jumping around when he saw her. "You're here to kill me, aren't you? Well, even if you're not I'm going to kill you anyway. Not just to be safe although that's a part of it. I just like killing people."

"I feel like I would be perfectly justified at this point if I did just kill him," Fayne said consideringly. "But at the same time, I feel like that's what Delf would do."

"I'm definitely going to kill Delf," Itran said. "I actually have a good reason for it and everything."

Fayne nodded. "I know you do. But how about you give me your dagger and I'll go kill Red Idward and the others for you and I'll even leave you with another dagger if you need the protection."

Itran laughed at that. "Who wouldn't have more than one weapon to protect them?"

"Ugnar for one," Fayne said.

"He always was a softie at heart," Itran said disgustedly. "I don't even know why he joined the Red Legion in the first place. It was his idea to leave, you know. But I'll tell you what. If you give me 900 gold pieces then I'll just give you my dagger."

"900! I'll be doing you a favor!" Fayne protested. "And I've been trying to save up to buy a backpack and that's more than 7000 gold pieces!"

"That's really not my problem," Itran pointed out.

"It's because my armor and weapons keep getting damaged," Fayne continued to complain, mindless of her listener's apathy. "The blacksmith keeps ripping me off! Maybe I should look into repair kits. But then I'd have to learn how to blacksmith myself and I kind of really don't want to."

"Look, do you want the dagger or not?"

"Fine," Fayne grumbled, handing over the money.

Itran handed her the dagger. "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

"I'm going to go now," Fayne said, turning to leave.

To her surprise, Itran took out a different dagger and charged at her. "I'm not going down without a fight!"

"What?" she asked, confused. "I thought we agreed this fight wasn't happening! And don't tell me you were just trying to rip me off before killing me because you could have just looted my corpse!"

Itran didn't respond and Fayne was forced to gut him.

"Well that was a gigantic waste of time," she said, bending down and searching him. "I guess he really was crazy. And where is my money anyway? I literally saw him take it and put it in his pocket not five minutes ago! This is ridiculous."

Finally giving up, Fayne took what she could salvage and headed for the Red Legion camp. It was in what she considered an improbably large cave.

She saw a man right as she entered the cave.

"What are you doing down here? Don't you know it's haunted?" the man asked her.

Fayne shrugged. "What are _you _doing down here? Personally, I figure ghosts can't hurt me so I won't care or I can hurt them back in which case I can deal with it."

"What if they're special ghosts who can hurt you but are intangible so you can't hurt them back?" the man challenged.

"Then that would be really stupid. But anyway, I don't suppose it's too much to ask that you're Nanne Hanri's apprentice Karth, is it?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

The man started. "Actually, that is exactly who I am."

"Excellent, that saves times and I don't have to worry about accidentally killing him – you – while I'm slaughtering my way through this cave," Fayne said, pleased.

"For all Nanne was some kind of genius, she was also a fool for not seeing how I was obviously evil," Karth boasted.

Fayne winced. "Can you maybe not call her that?"

"What? Nanne? It's her name. She insists everyone call her that," Karth said, confused.

"Yeah but somehow the way you say it is so very creepy and mocking and disrespectful and vaguely sexually harassing," Fayne explained. "So stop."

"Well what am I supposed to call her then?"

" 'Her' works. Or 'she.' And maybe you weren't _that _obviously evil," Fayne said.

Karth shook his head. "Trust me. I was pretty obviously evil."

"You do know what that formula does, right?" Fayne asked him.

Karth nodded. "Yes, she eventually trusted I wasn't too stupid to understand the idea of a formula being used to kill people. Her explanation was pretty insulting but I suppose that's one more reason why I'm here."

"Care to explain to me why you think handing a group of violent and short-sighted criminals like the Red Legion who are probably going to use it to kill a great deal of innocent people and will probably accidentally drop it or something and cause a plague?" Fayne asked.

"I want to join the Red Legion but they're not really impressed with me so I have to do something really badass like this to join," Karth explained.

"It's just a really stupid idea."

"It's not my fault what people use what I give them for," Karth said stubbornly.

"Even though you pretty much know exactly what's going to happen with this?" Fayne challenged.

"I don't believe in personal responsibility," Karth told her.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "What are you, a Fateweaver?"

"No, why? Do they not believe in personal responsibility either? Maybe I should look into joining them. Now look, I know that I had no real reason to tell you my evil plan or to further clarify that the formula is hidden in ten wooden crates in this cave right now so if you smash all the wooden crates you see you'll be able to save the day but the fact remains that I did. It was stupid of me but it happened. I can't take that back. And I really can't have you go back to Na-to _her_ and tell her what I've done so I've got to kill you. Nothing personal, you understand."

"What, seriously?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "You don't want her to know? She pretty much already does."

"She's a fool and I can concoct some story as long as you're not around to contradict me. In fact, I could probably get her to believe me anyway but why take that chance?"

"Are you seriously trying to join a gang _and _keep your job?" Fayne asked incredulously.

"I feel like saying 'yes' would make you want to bang your head against a wall but I'm not really sure why," Karth admitted. "She pays great."

"Then why do you want to do this?" Fayne demanded.

"Because the Red Legion are _awesome_."

"I'm just going to go kill you now," Fayne informed him before doing just that. She then proceeded to hack her way through the cave, taking special care to destroy every crate she had seen. She didn't know when she actually got a crate but she just had to have faith that she was getting them. When she was looting all of the bodies, she found a few daggers that had the same last name on them so while she couldn't actually remember the brothers whose daggers she was supposed to get she figured she probably had them.

Finally, she arrived at a redheaded man that she could only assume was the deeply uninspired Red Idward.

"I've just watched you slaughter your way through my men," Idward said. "I really don't want you to kill me as well."

Fayne drew back, surprised. "That's rather sensible of you!"

"You sounds surprised," Idward said, glaring a bit.

Fayne shrugged apologetically. "Well most people around here haven't been too sensible. And I think insisting on calling yourself 'Red Idward' and naming all of your little gang members after your hair color is rather stupid."

"Well what would you rather I call them?" Idward asked her.

"I…don't know," Fayne admitted. "But that's why I'm not in a position where I would need to name a gang."

"It's just not very fair of you to say that I shouldn't have a gang because I couldn't think of an original name for them," Idward complained. "And it's not like if I had chosen a different name like Idward the Terrible or something that that would have been more original either."

"No, I suppose not," Fayne agreed. "The sheer number of criminals and gang leaders make all the best names so cliché. But I'm sure you're not the only one to seize on calling yourself the Red!"

"Maybe not but at least I have red hair," Idward said. "Could you imagine if I were to try and call myself the Brown Idward? Or worse, the Yellow Idward? And if we were going by eye color everyone would just get so confused."

"Stop trying to make me feel like your really stupid gang name isn't really stupid!" Fayne ordered.

"You're just saying that because it's working," Idward said smugly. "And while we're on the topic of stupid behavior, why did I watch you keep activating Lorestones and then walking away without listening to what they were saying?"

"Well I didn't care what they were saying," Fayne replied. "And I can't listen to fae talk for too long without getting a little annoyed because their voice does that weird thing. I don't know how to describe it. It's really too bad because otherwise I love the fae."

"I believe the word you're looking for is flanging," Idward told her.

Fanyne stared at him. "What the hell is a flanging?"

"It's the word to describe the strange effect that fae voices have," Idward said. "I couild be more specific but that would be getting all technical and I'm sure you don't care."

"How about you let me be the judge of whether I care or not?"

Idward looked unconvinced but nodded. "Alright then. Flanging is an audio effect produced by mixing two identical signals together, one signal delayed by a small and gradually changing period, usually smaller than 20 milliseconds. This produces-"

Fayne held up a hand. "Okay, you're right, I don't care."

Idward smirked triumphantly.

"So I can't listen to fae talk for too long as it is and them telling long boring stories about things that happened ages ago just isn't very interesting to me so I sort of walk away after I activate them," Fayne explained.

"But then why activate them in the first place?" Idward asked.

"I…don't know. I might be kind of a completionist. I see a new Lorestone and I just _have _to activate it," Fayne said. "But if you were being all creepy and spying on me then why didn't you do anything when I was slaughtering your men?"

"Because I'm not so arrogant as to believe that if you could take all of them down so easily that I could stop you," Idward replied. "I mean, I'm significantly stronger than any of my men but not so much stronger that when you're clearly not even trying to kill them I think I could take you."

"Well…now what?" Fayne asked. "I was kind of expecting a battle but I'm not going to just attack somebody that won't fight back. I mean, when I start attacking I'm sure you would but that would make that self-defense on your part and so no matter how terrible of a person you are I'd feel guilty."

"Why are you even here?" Idward asked. "Did you just want to kill us all?"

"Actually, no. I came for three different reasons. Someone asked me to get back her chemical weapon and I think I've destroyed all the crates of it and someone else asked me to kill two people and get their daggers and I've probably done that, too," Fayne answered. "Then since I was already heading out this way somebody asked me about talking to you about some sort of a blood hunt or blood rite or something."

"Ah, that would be Delf then," Idward said, nodding.

Fayne backed away a little. "How can you possibly know that? There were three of them, right? And if you were spying on me enough to know who I was talking to you should know why I'm here."

"There were three people I contacted about a blood rite, yes," Idward agreed. "But honestly only Delf is a terrible enough person to make somebody else do it."

"And he's the one of them who joined a religious order," Fayne mused.

"Joining a religious order isn't proof of goodness," Idward said indifferently. "Besides, this is the same order that wouldn't admit women until five minutes ago and whose whole purpose is converting the perfectly happy fae to their religion even though we all know that it's just never going to happen."

"You do have a point," Fayne conceded.

"So did you kill the other two?" Idward asked.

Fayne took out their daggers.

"Yeah, that's not really an answer," Idward pointed out.

"One of them attacked me even after he said he'd just give me the dagger," Fayne said.

"Maybe he was just lying," Idward suggested.

"But he actually did give me the dagger and took the money and I don't even know how to explain it," Fayne said.

"Was it Itran?" Idward asked. "That sounds like Itran."

"It was," Fayne said, nodding.

"Well this is kind of awkward, especially since you killed all my men and I really don't want to fight you," Idward said, scratching the back of his neck.

"Oh, I'm just going to _love _this, aren't I?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"Only Red Legion members can invoke a blood rite, you see," Idward explained. "And Delf and the others all defected so they can't redeem themselves this way. I was going to see who finally went and killed the other two and then kill the survivor. But even if I had been acting in good faith, having someone else kill them for you – and you still haven't confirmed that Ugnar is even dead – wouldn't count."

"So now what?"

"I don't suppose I could convince you to go kill Delf for me, could I?" Idward asked hopefully.

Fayne stared at him in disbelief. "And have to go all the way back to town, kill someone seemingly unprovoked without getting run out of town, and then come all the way back here? Do you have any idea how inconvenient that sounds?"

"You can't possibly be trying to make this decision based on convenience!"

Fayne shrugged. "Well it's not like I'm invested enough to make it for any other reason."

"If you don't care why are you even doing this?" Idward asked.

"I don't even know," Fayne admitted.

"Besides, if you leave for two days or so then the townspeople will forget the most egregious of crimes," Idward informed her.

"But leaving and coming back…not worth it," Fayne decided.

Idward sighed. "I really wish it hadn't come to this."

"You could just not attack me," Fayne pointed out.

Idward chose not to listen to her advice.

* * *

When Fayne got back to town, the first thing she did was take her dagger collection to Odura so she could sell what she didn't need.

"I really like my stave," she said. "Scepters look like they could be more powerful but they take up mana with every attack which is ridiculous."

Odura didn't look up from sorting through the pile of daggers she'd placed in front of him. "It's ridiculous now that when you use magic attacks it takes up a little bit of your magical energy?"

Fayne paused. "Okay, when you put it that way it actually makes perfect sense. But it's still annoying and with staves I don't have to use up mana. Though how that works I could not tell you. I think I'm going to go with faeblades, though."

"Any particular reason?" Odura asked, just to be polite.

"They look really cool. Those chakrams look really cool, too, but not as cool as faeblades. And I like the idea of using blades made by and for the fae. I kind of have a thing for fae, I think. Not sure if it's romantically but I definitely think they are really awesome."

"Don't you think that's cultural appropriation?" Odura asked.

Fayne took out her faeblade. "Don't make me hit you with this. In the throat."

"Ah, already forgetting we mere mortals won't return like the fae," Odura said, lightly mocking. "Tell me, is that why you're going by Fayne? Because it's like 'fae' with two other letters?"

"No!" Fayne exclaimed. "Stop trying to analyze my name choice people! It just randomly popped into my head and I liked it!"

"So what you're saying is that for all you know subconsciously you chose it because-"

"NO!"

"Okay, I have found your daggers," Odura said, taking the pair out. "I am not entirely sure why you had to take the dagger of every single person you killed and give all of them to me but I found the ones I was looking for."

"I need money and I need a lot of it. I had to down like eight health potions working my way through the Reds," Fayne explained. "And sure, I could have just waited until my health came back by itself or until my healing recharged but I couldn't be bothered!"

"Whatever makes you happy," Odura said indifferently. He took out a letter and handed it to her. "This is a commendation recommending you to the Warsworn. You could have just gone and asked to join up but they probably wouldn't have let you. With this they'll see that you're a little bit qualified."

"I know that I did, in fact, single-handedly destroy a gang but I really could have succeeded in this just by pickpocketing them," Fayne pointed out. "This really qualifies me to join?"

Obdura shrugged. "It's some basic form of competence. You wouldn't believe all the idiots with no combat experience who want to join to become a badass. I keep telling them that they have to be a badass first and we're not in the business of teaching people that but do they listen? And we need all the bodies we can get so sometimes bad things happen. We're not so desperate yet that we'll take you if you can't hold a sword right but if this siege continues…"

"Siege?" Fayne asked blankly.

Obdura opened his mouth to explain.

"Actually, I don't care. I've got things to do. Thanks for the commendation!" Fayne said, waving to him before running off.

She went to Delf next.

"You know, it's really weird," he told her. "We were having all kinds of recruitment problems because our mission has never had a success ever and nobody actually thinks the fae are ever going to convert. It's really just the principle of the thing at this point and our love for the great Mitharu. But ever since Sister Zelda mysteriously found proof that Mitharu didn't reject female worshipers, we've got lots of new blood coming in! Before we were so desperate for people we had to go chasing after every idiot who ran away to go become a fae. Now we can just let nature take care of that."

"It's almost like keeping half your available recruitment population out might not be the best for your numbers or something," Fayne said sarcastically.

"It's weird, I know, but I swear that it must be something like that," Delf said seriously. "But anyway, what happened with the Red Legion?"

"I single-handedly killed pretty much all of them," Fayne bragged.

"I'm not saying that I don't believe you but I am saying that I got ambushed by five of them when I was taking a walk while you were over there with that Warsworn guy," Delf said.

Fayne crossed her arms and huffed. "Is it my fault not literally all of them were there? I killed everyone who was there."

"For all you know, most of them were out terrorizing people," Delf pointed out.

"I killed a ton of them!" Fayne protested. "And anyway I never promised anyone that I was going to kill literally anyone."

"Maybe nobody asked you to but I could have sworn I heard you say-" Delf started to say.

"Okay, look, Idward is dead."

Delf's shoulders slumped. "Oh thank Mitharu that this is now behind me!"

"Or, you know, you could thank me. Since Mitharu really didn't have anything to do with your problems resolving themselves."

"It is a shame that Ugnar and Itran didn't live to see this day," Delf said heavily.

"Itran, not really. I have no idea why he randomly attacked me once we worked out a plan where he wouldn't. He really got what was coming to him," Fayne said bluntly. "Ugnar isn't even dead, though. Don't you guys live in the same really small village? How could you have failed to notice that?"

"I was mostly hiding in the mission while you were gone in case Ugnar or Itran or any other Reds came after me," Delf admitted.

"Except for that one walk you took where you got ambushed by five of them."

"Except for that, yes," Delf agreed, nodding. "They didn't seem to know who I was, though. It's almost like most people can just let it go or something and not obsess about everyone who fakes their deaths and goes into hiding."

"Weird."

"I'm kind of annoyed at you for not killing Ugnar when you said you would-"

"I'm pretty sure I didn't-"

Delf ignored the interruption. "But ultimately it worked out so I forgive you."

"I don't even care," Fayne told him. "Goodbye. Try to be a better person in the future. Your redemption is so not convincing."

"It is, actually," Delf called after her. "You don't even want to know what I was like before all of this!"

Fayne silently agreed and went to go find Nanne Hanri.

"What are you doing back here?" Nanne demanded. "Did you forget that you promised you would help me. I know you're really stupid but, please, this is important. Lives are at stake!"

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "If you think I'm so stupid I'd forget why did you even entrust this to me in the first place?"

"Well, I didn't have a lot of options, did I?" Nanne asked rhetorically. "Everyone who isn't too weak to help was either too cowardly or just too apathetic about the possibility of thousands of innocent deaths. But I understand, I really do. These are busy people with busy lives."

"Am I just the only one you randomly judge?" Fayne demanded.

"I'm not randomly judging you. I can just literally feel your stupidity from here," Nanne explained.

"You didn't deserve my help," Fayne said, glaring.

Nanne put her hands on her hips. "Oh, who put that idea in your head?"

"You did. By being so awful. But just so you know, I found and killed Karth and destroyed the formula," Fayne told her.

Nanne threw her hands up in the air. "Well that's not what I wanted at all! Maybe I should have just not bothered to do anything at all! Why would you kill my poor apprentice and destroy my formula? I needed that!"

"It turns out your apprentice was evil. _Obviously _evil according to him."

"Don't be ridiculous," Nanne scoffed. "If he were obviously evil I would have noticed. You must have misunderstood."

"How could I _possibly_ have misunderstood 'I'm obviously evil'?" Fayne demanded.

"I couldn't tell you. It must be trying to be so very stupid," Nanne said condescendingly.

Fayne closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm just going to leave now because I'm getting dangerously close to killing you."

"So brutish!" Nanne sniffed.

"I didn't know you wanted the formula back and maybe that's just me being 'stupid', I don't know. But I'm glad I did it. I don't trust you with that kind of power. Please, please, _please _don't recreate it."

"I'll take it under advisement," Nanne said diplomatically. "You think you might understand the impact of saving us but you don't."

"What could I _possibly _not understand about what saving people means? It means people don't die! This isn't hard!"

"Now, now, don't beat yourself up," Nanne said soothingly.

Fayne stomped out of the building and left that whole damn town behind.

She found a young woman in a bunch of ruins. Why were there so many ruins around anyway? Yes there was a war and whatnot but it was supposed to be _really _far away.

"Finally," the woman said in an atrocious voice. "I thought only the Warsworn came this way and I can't have them getting involved with this highly questionable activity. Plus they hate travelers."

Fayne gave her a strange look, trying not to wince. "Why would they hate travelers?"

"Not travlers travelers, _Travelers_," the woman tried to clarify.

"Yeah that's not actually making any more sense," Fayne said bluntly.

The woman sighed. "My name is Penri Kell and I'm with this loosely connected organization of thieves called the Travelers. If you ever steal something, we're pretty much the only ones who will buy it from you."

"How would people even know if I stole something?" Fayne asked.

Penri shrugged. "I don't know. They just do. Total hardasses."

"Wait! Warsworn!" Fayne exclaimed suddenly.

"What about them?" Penri asked. "They're kind of our mortal enemies. They don't appreciate our lack of any regard for laws. Or anything else, really."

"You guys sound like winners," Fayne deadpanned. "I just realized why they're called that. Maybe it's just the way people pronounce it and the emphasis on different parts but I never realized it's because they are sworn to war."

"Well yeah," Penri said, beginning to look at her much like Nanne had. "What did you think?"

"I don't know! And stop looking at me like that! It's not like I ever thought it was called that for any other reason. I just hadn't thought about why it was called that and now I have my revelation and I think it's cool and that doesn't make me stupid!" Fayne burst out.

"…Yeah, anyway, I have a job for you. Interested?"

"Not until I hear what this job is. What do you take me for anyway?" Fayne asked.

"Most Travelers don't deal with fae because they're not big on money and kind of creepy. But there's this ballad about a ruby ring and I want it so you need to help me," Penri explained.

"What does a ballad have to do with a ring?" Fayne wondered. "Is it a treasure map or something and it's never been claimed?"

"No, the ballad is about how the ring can be recovered. A maiden has a ring stolen from her by a troll and seeks a brave champion to reclaim it. I'll be the maiden and you be the champion," Penri said.

"That's it? That sounds kind of…petty and not worthy of a ballad. Oh, no, some woman had a ring stolen! Some guy got it back! A troll was probably killed! Whatever," Fayne said, disgusted. "Why would a troll even steal a ring and not kill the woman or something? Did she leave it and the troll just picked it up or something?"

"It can't all be epic, I suppose," Penri said, disinterested.

"But…it doesn't even make sense!" Fayne protested. "You didn't lose the ring. If someone else lost the ring you can't take her part. Did a ring just magically materialize? If you take the ring and sell it then will the ballad never be able to take place again? Will the fae have to find it and buy it back? Will the ring disappear one day and go back to the troll? Will the ring last after the ballad is over? Did the troll magically materialize? Did the-"

"I don't know," Penri interrupted, annoyed. "Ask the fae. But they'll probably get offended, just warning you. In the meantime, just go get the damn ring. Kill some animals to prove your prowess as a hunter and attract the troll."

"How will I be attracting the troll? Through the scent? What kind of hunting prowess will I be displaying by walking up to some antelope and hitting them with my faeblade?" Fayne demanded. "And why do I need to display my hunting prowess anyway? Does the troll just have a personal crusade against hunters or something? Is it actually an activist troll?"

Penri twitched. "Still not a fae. Just do it."

Sighing, Fayne went over, killed a few antelope, cut their heads off, tried not to get too much icky stuff on her hands, went back to Penri, found out she needed to put the heads on a ruin, and did so. A troll appeared and she took it down pretty easily before locating the ring and then Penri rushed over.

"Success!" Penri exclaimed. "Thanks a bunch. That went great. Ring please."

Because of how much Penri annoyed her, through no real fault of her own, Fayne briefly considered just keeping the ring. She could probably persuade Penri. Who knew? Maybe she could convince her that the very object Penri was seeking would be a suitable reward for helping retrieve the object. But Fayne would just end up selling it anyway and didn't think what she had to go through to get it was worth whatever little money she could get for it. At least Penri seemed genuinely excited about this.

"Here you go," Fayne said, reluctantly handing it over.

"Thanks again! Here's your reward," Penri said, handing over her money. "You know, there's an old saying about the Travelers."

"Am I likely to care?"

"They say kiss a traveler and count your teeth!" Penri told her.

Fayne made a face and fought the sudden, powerful urge to gag. "Ew! Why would you tell me that! Bad mental images! Ew!"

"I…sorry. I didn't mean to…you know what, I'm just going to go," Penri said awkwardly.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Fayne checked the sign in front of the house she was passing by in case it was anything interesting.

"Adren's hut," she mused. "I'm pretty sure that's the place Agarth wanted me to go to to see if I really don't have fate. Against all odds, I appear to have found it. Or perhaps I'm not as fateless as he seems to think and I was meant to. Either way, I don't really feel like dealing with this right now."

The door opened and a man came out. "Can I help you?"

Fayne shook her head. "Not right now. I may be back eventually, I don't know."

"I'll be sure to wait for you then," the man said, rolling his eyes a little as he shut the door.

"Now, on to find the House of Ballads!" Fayne exclaimed, returning to her trek.

When she finally reached it, she felt suddenly and inexplicably nervous and she knew that she had to not overreact and make a fool of herself. But everything looked so amazing and was green and clearly magical!

She went up to the first fae she saw.

"Yes?" the fae asked politely.

"You're part of the House of Ballads!"

"I get that a lot," the fae said. "Was there something else or did you just want to inform me of this fact?"

Fayne coughed. "Actually, there was. A member of the House of Ballads was attacked and-"

The fae held up a hand. "I'm going to stop you right there. This sounds very serious but I'm not really the person to speak to about that. Go see Hallam the White. He's meditating right over there."

"Ah, that makes sense. When reporting something don't just go up to the first person you see and expect them to be the right one," Fayne said, nodding. She went over the meditating fae. It seemed pretty rude to just interrupt a meditation even if it was important so she stood by him and waited for him to notice her. Unfortunately, his eyes were closed so she engaged in a silent battle of wills and eventually just lost her patience entirely. "Excuse me."

Hallam had been sitting cross-legged and stood up without using his hands with a certain kind of poise that Fayne envied fiercely. "This does not concern you, mortal."

Fayne was understandably confused. "This? What are you talking about?"

"Sir Sagrell's passing, of course. A seat in the House of Ballads is suddenly empty and that can't be allowed to stand," Hallam explained.

"That's great and all but that what's what I came here to say," Fayne told him. "I also didn't come here to say that this place is amazing and I want to live here but now that I'm here I feel it would be a waste if I didn't say that."

Hallam inclined his head. "That's very kind, mortal. What did you come here to say then?"

"Illuvia is off in Gorhart and she was injured. We think she'll probably be fine and it's impossible to say just how badly she was hurt but someone who may or may not be the leader of the town, I wasn't really paying attention, suggested that I go tell you guys about it. Or that I hire the Warsworn to save us from your vengeance but this option was cheaper and I wanted an excuse to come see you anyway," Fayne explained.

Hallam frowned and tapped his chin. "Is that so? Normally Galin would be the one to go to about such matters but as you are mortal there's a good chance he would refuse to speak to you out of concern for his reputation."

"It would hurt his reputation to talk to a mortal?" Fayne asked, not liking the sound of that. "I notice you don't seem all that concerned."

"I'm Hallam the White," Hallam replied. "If my reputation couldn't even withstand a little mortal conversation now and again then it wouldn't be much of a reputation at all, would it?"

Fayne nodded her agreement.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to Iluvia? She's a more recalcitrant member of the House but she is still one of us and we are concerned. Does it have anything to do with the village of Gorhart or is their fear of us just random paranoia?" Hallam inquired.

"Well, I'm not _exactly _sure because I wasn't there but I'm pretty sure what happened was the local bandits attacked her for some reason, which is weird because apparently your people don't use a lot of money, and everyone in town just sort of stood by and watched and didn't do anything. Then the possible leader of the town wanted to help her but was too scared to ask another fae what to do and was really worried about your reaction to the attack anyway," Fayne answered.

"That certainly doesn't sound good. I don't understand the mortal tendency to fear something and then attack it, especially since we have done nothing to them to deserve it," Hallam said. "Surely they must be able to tell the difference between us and the Tuatha! They certainly seem to be able to keep the two different species of alfar distinct despite the fact that they look far more similar than the Tuatha and ourselves."

"I don't get it, either. But then, I'm not scared of fae," Fayne said. "So…retribution? Is that going to happen?"

Hallam shook his head. "We don't want to start a fight. We just want people to stop attacking us. Tell them that they have nothing to fear so long as the status quo remains."

"Can I put a little fear into them about how next time don't just stand around staring at an attack in broad daylight? The Red Legion never would have tried it on a human in the center of town because they simply wouldn't have been able to deal with the entire town," Fayne said.

"If you wish," Hallam told her.

"Oh, I do," Fayne said, smiling predatorily. "But since I'm here anyway, I've got a few questions about this Sir Sagrell incident."

"Ask away."

"So Sir Sagrell died. I thought in the House of Ballads, members die all the time when it's called for by the story," Fayne said.

"That's the key phrase, though, when it's called for by the story," Hallam explained. "In this story, Sir Sagrell was meant to slay the Grave Thresh but Sagrell was instead killed by it."

"And that means he's fired?" Fayne asked. "Because it seems like otherwise he'd come back just as the others do."

"I don't know about 'fired' but we need someone to kill the grave thresh. And that is why this has such urgency. Every key figure in our court has been replaced time and time again when they weary of the role and must find a new path to take. But they only do it in between ballads! For this to happen with the maid still kidnapped and the grave thresh still living is very serious indeed," Hallam said.

"And has a telling ever been changed like this before?" Fayne asked.

Hallam shook his head. "No, never."

"Not that I'm trying to dispute the heroism of your heroes or wondering why you guys can't just write these things down instead of constantly relieving them because, though it's a valid question, I think what you guys are doing is really really cool. But I do find myself still needing to ask how heroic it really is to go on a quest that you know you can't lose at. I mean, the first Sir Sagrell that had to go rescue that woman and kill that grave thresh would undoubtedly be heroic. But for everyone else to go through the motions and know that it was all going to work out? That somehow…lessens the effect."

"That is certainly an interesting way of looking at it," Hallam said diplomatically. "But the risks are just as real every time the telling is carried out. That was how Sir Sagrell was able to be killed this time despite his many, many victories in the past. And whenever a seat is empty, everyone who wishes to replace him all go out and try to complete the ballad. The first one to succeed is the one to take the place of the hero. This way, they have already proven that they can overcome the dangers in the telling. And in completing the same challenges as the original heroes, we can say that our new heroes are every bit the equal of the original heroes. We are not irresponsible, mortal."

"I see," Fayne said slowly.

"I suspect there is something else."

"Not really, just a sort of general inquiry strictly for, um, theoretical purposes," Fayne said, looking anywhere but at him. "Can I, I mean, can _anyone _compete to be Sir Sagrell? Does it have to be a fae? I mean, I'm sure that the fae would have an advantage and they could certainly keep the part for longer but it's a part that isn't supposed to end in death so theoretically it seems like a mortal could be him."

Hallam smiled tolerantly. "You wish to know if you could join the competition? Certainly. As you have mentioned, you would not be able to hold it as long as most but there are often years between the tellings so it would not disrupt your life overmuch. Many would be scandalized by your even wishing to participate and we have never had a non-fae in our court before but they will not think you will succeed. In truth, the odds of any one participant being chosen are not very high given the scarcity of open positions. If you prove the most worthy then you will deserve to be Sir Sagrell no matter what your species."

Fayne couldn't help but smile at that.

"Just remember, Sir Sagrell is one of our most beloved heroes," Hallam told her. "Of course, they're all one of our most beloved but that does not take away from the love we have for them!"

He told her where the ballad took place and she headed off to try her luck, confident that this was a better use of her time than speaking to Arden.

"Oh, what are you doing here?" a fae complained when he saw her enter the cave.

"I'm here to try and become Sir Sagrell," Fayne explained. "My name is Fayne."

"And I am Ficon," Ficon admitted. "I can't believe that you being here is actually allowed! This story belongs to one of us, not some whelp fresh from the cradle."

"Actually, I'm fresh from the grave," Fayne corrected. "I died and came back to life."

Ficon paused, looking uncertain. "Well that does sound very fae-like. Can you do this whenever you want? It would be a help if you were trying to be one of those who dies during their telling though Sir Sagrell is not supposed to. But you're _not _a fae. Still, you probably have permission and even if you don't I can't very well force you to leave without outright killing you and that seems a little harsh. Sir Sagrell's story is a twisted one anyway and we could use all the help we could get."

"So…you're saying you want to help you prove that you can handle this tale all by yourself?" Fayne asked skeptically.

Ficon flushed a dark blue. "When you put it that way it sounds a little ridiculous but it is really not! We are at a disadvantage in this tale! There was a mysterious maid and the thresh went to sleep so we can't get to it because it is protected by vines. If I should win this then in my next telling I won't have these complications and can satisfactorily beat it on my own."

"Wait, maid? What maid? And I think we need to clarify what you mean by 'maid.' My people would use that to mean a woman who has never had sex," Fayne said.

Ficon looked confused. "That's a very strange way of defining something! No, no, a maid is merely a woman in the prime of her life. When she begins to wrinkle and her hair turns gray then she is no longer a maid."

"Got it," Fayne said, nodding. "I guess Penri was a fit after all. Not that we need to talk about that or anything! Though I do wonder if that means I'm already some hero of legend…but seriously, never mind."

"It would be easier to do that if you would stop dropping tantalizing hints like that in front of me," Ficon pointed out.

"So, this strange maid you mentioned," Fayne said loudly. "What was that about?"

"I don't know," Ficon said. "She was just there, smirking knowingly at me, and left. I don't trust her."

"That does sound rather ominous but I guess we can worry about it later. In the meantime, why don't we just burn the vines?" Fayne asked. "We may even hurt the grave thresh while we're at it?"

"No, no, we couldn't possibly do that!" Ficon said, shocked.

"Why not? Too practical?" Fayne asked sarcastically.

"I don't fancy the thought of a fire getting out of control," Ficon said. "And I'm a summer fae. Even if we could control the fire, it's against my nature to burn living things."

"Then what do you suggest?" Fayne asked.

"We should destroy the heart vines that hold him and rouse him that way," Ficon told her.

"So destroying plants are fine so long as we don't burn them?" Fayne asked skeptically. "And what's a heart vine anyway?"

Ficon shrugged. "I didn't make the rules."

Fayne sighed. "Very well then."

"I will keep the beast occupied while you seek out the heart vines," Ficon told her.

"But…I thought my job was to destroy the heart vines so we'd wake the thresh up so it would attack us and we could kill it," Fayne protested. "Why would you need to distract it if our whole goal is to wake it up? If it's already up and in need of a distraction, why would I need to destroy any vines at all?"

But Ficon had already run off.

Fayne sighed. "So I guess we're going with this plan then."

She destroyed the vines and then met up with Ficon again standing over a dead body.

"I know that it might look suspicious, me standing over a corpse and you not being here to see what happened," Ficon began. "But I swear I had nothing to do with it."

"I believe you," Fayne said.

Ficon sighed in relief. "That's something, at least. I just don't understand! This is Sir Sagrell! I don't understand. How can he be dead? This has never happened before!"

"Not for nothing, but you're sounding awfully surprised by this given that the only reason we're even doing this competition for the spot of Sir Sagrell is that we knew he was dead," Fayne said. "Though if his body wasn't recovered and the thresh wasn't killed, I'm not sure how anyone even knew."

"There's knowing and then there's _knowing_," Ficon clarified.

"Well I'm going to take his things," Fayne decided, bending down to do just that.

"That seems a little tasteless," Ficon complained. "And…here comes the thresh!"

"Found the ring!" Fayne exclaimed.

"No!"

Working together, they quickly took out the thresh and all the various creatures that also attacked them.

"I can't believe a mortal became Sir Sagrell," Ficon complained. "We should head back and then I'm going to need to drink a lot to get over this indignity."

"As long as you have a healthy coping plan," Fayne replied.

* * *

Hallam made no secret of his surprise when Fayne returned with Sagrell's ring. "A mortal! This is just so very unusual. I suppose we should just be glad we even have a Sir Sagrell, especially given that poor planning has meant that Sir Farrara's tale is also ongoing and we need you to go help out there."

"I…what?"

"Sir Farrara is a part of the tale of Bloody Bones. A maid was kidnapped Sir Farrara had been very selfish for all of his life. He gave his life rescuing her and defeating Bloody Bones," Hallam explained.

"So him dying is supposed to be the good ending? And not just good because it is in keeping with the traditional telling of the tale," Fayne clarified.

"He was selfish and learned how to be selfless," Hallam said.

"Yeah but can't he learn that without having to die? It's already selfless enough risking his life to save the anonymous maid," Fayne pointed out.

"It's much more selfless to die."

"Maybe but what good is character growth if you're too dead to do anything about it?" Fayne asked.

"It's the culmination of a redemption arc. This is the destination and not the journey," Hallam said. "And that brings me to your part anyway. Sir Sagrell goes out and revives Sir Farrara with this potion and the two of them go on to be great friends."

"Wait, wait, wait."

Hallam looked confused. "What?"

"So the fae already die and come back naturally but now there's a potion you have that can 'revive' someone from death?" Fayne couldn't believe it.

"Oh, yes," Hallam said, nodding.

"So why not do this all the time? Why not do it when Sir Sagrell – the previous one, I mean – died so unexpectedly?" Fayne asked.

"It would be as wasteful to use a revival potion on everyone who dies as it is for you to drink a health potion every time you stub your toe," Hallam said. "I cannot speak of why Sir Sagrell chooses to revive Sir Farrara just then. Perhaps you would be better suited to answer that question, Sagrell. And in the case of your predecessor, not only was him being revived not a part of the tale but he failed to fulfill his part in it. Clearly the time had come for a new Sir Sagrell."

"I…think that might make sense. But you guys are kind of in a rut," Fayne said.

"We like it that way," Hallam said. He handed her the revival potion. "Now please go see King Wencen. He'll tell you what you need to do."

"I thought you told me what to do."

"Just go see him anyway," Hallam ordered. "He'll give you more specifics on the location of the next ballad and as our king he wishes to welcome the next Sir Sagrell into the fold personally."

"I don't believe I've ever met a king before," Fayne said thoughtfully.

"He is the fifth King Wencen to hold that distinction," Hallam told her.

She suddenly wondered if Hallam was his name or his title but wasn't sure on the etiquette of asking. Everyone had just sort of volunteered who else was an original and who had a name they passed on to the most worthy.

"But he's still a _king _even if he's not really Wencen."

"He is the most authentic Wencen we have," Hallam told her.

* * *

She found King Wencen mediating (what was it with fae and medicating? She had tried it once for what she could have sworn was an hour and a half easy but was apparently merely fifteen minutes. Or at least she thought she had. Strange that she knew that and nothing else about herself) by what at first glance appeared to be a felled Jotun but upon further inspection she saw it was actually a shrine or some other weird fae thing. Too bad. That might have made him more interesting.

"When Hallam told me a mortal had taken the part of Sir Sagrell I did not believe him," Wencen said by way of greeting.

"Why not?" Fayne asked reasonably. "Does he have a history of lying to you?"

"Well, no, but it's just so very…_odd_."

"Why is it that none of my kind have ever taken a part like this before?" Fayne wondered. "It can't be that we're just not strong enough and not all of the parts require a death. Is it just that none have tried? Because if that's the case, what's so surprising about my succeeding once I've already tried?"

"I think it's mostly that you're the first to ever try," Wencen said. "It's too bad that we don't have time to properly mourn Sir Sagrell but we do have to get on with the next telling. None of us planned that we'd need to replace Sagrell like we did and Sir Farrara should not be made to suffer for this oversight. Perhaps when the telling is done we can toast our fallen hero."

Fayne shook her head in marvelment. "You guys have so much cognitive dissonance going on! I'm Sir Sagrell, I've done what he has done, and yet there is another Sir Sagrell to mourn and who knows how many before him?"

"I don't see where the cognitive dissonance lies," Wencen replied. "We're not claiming you are the one and only Sir Sagrell."

Fayne decided to just agree to disagree. She knew better than to say the actual words as that tended to annoy people and make them feel like they were forced to end an argument while the other party, especially if they put the 'agree to disagree' suggestion at the end of their position, had gotten the last word. "What can you tell me about Bloody Bones? I know that Sir Farrara must give his life killing Bloody Bones and rescuing a woman that Bloody Bones kidnapped."

"He didn't kill Bloody Bones," Wencen corrected. "In fact, he wasn't capable of killing him. No one is."

"Is that a challenge?" Fayne asked, perking up.

"It isn't because he is literally incapable of dying and even if he could die then we wouldn't appreciate if you broke from the telling to kill him," Wencen said firmly. "Bloody Bones used to be a part of the court of Ysa. Unfortunately, he was kind of a terrible person and abducted Ysa's lover. Ysa was the king of the summer fae long ago. When Ysa caught up to the kidnapper, he cursed him so that he can never die and his twisted form will live on forever."

Fayne made a face. "Look, I really don't want to feel sorry for the vile abductor of women over here but seriously? He annoys Ysa so he is forced to exist eternally? I don't think kidnapping one woman is worth that! We didn't even hear that he seriously mistreated her. Or mistreated her at all aside from the kidnapping. Which is really bad and I'm not defending that. But it's called 'disproportionate retribution.' And think about all those people Ysa put in danger when he cursed Bloody Bones! He should have just permanently killed him and gotten over it."

"That would be barbaric!" Wencen said, shocked. "And Ysa was not looking for the good of his people or justice in this particular instance but pure revenge."

"So I gathered. Not a sign of great king-ing there."

"Before you feel too sorry for him, know that Bloody Bones abducted many maids after that fact and it was only when she took the beloved of lovably rogue Sir Farrara that he was finally stopped," Wencen recited.

"Not killed, of course, so really his sacrifice didn't have much meaning aside from saving his girlfriend even if the tellings didn't get repeated so often," Fayne said. "And all of the abductions, which again are very very bad, may not have even happened if Ysa hadn't cursed him like that."

"Now you're just victim blaming," Wencen accused.

"V-Victim blaming?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "Since when is saying that people don't make choices in a vacuum and maybe other people contributed to Bloody Bones' actions victim blaming?"

"Since always."

"Ysa wasn't even a victim of his!" Fayne protested.

"I think he'd disagree."

"His girlfriend being abducted makes _her _a victim and not him," Fayne insisted.

"You are welcome to your opinion, incorrect though it is," Wencen said pleasantly. "Now I'm assuming that Hallam gave you what you needed to revive Sir Farrara and as such I'm not even going to ask to make sure."

Fayne glared at him before stomping off. "I bet if I weren't a mortal they'd take me more seriously."

She went to the cave (why did these tales always seem to take place in caves anyway) indicated and found Sir Farrara just standing around, possibly waiting for her. That was thoughtful of him. It would have been really annoying if she showed up and he was already dead. Now, while her first instinct would be to try and save Farrara from dying, the fact she had a magical bring-someone-back-from-the-dead potion meant it really wasn't necessary. Though she was quite curious if it would work on non-fae, she doubted she'd get a chance to find out.

"Hello, Sagrell!" Farrara greeted her. "How strange and unexpected to see a mortal but since your job is pretty much just to bring me back to life I'm sure we'll be fine. Assuming Hallam found a way to have you do it. But hey, that's his problem, not mine."

"It'll be your problem if he didn't."

But Farrara shook his head. "Not really because then I'd be dead and I'd have even less problems. Listen, instead of abducting one maid Bloody Bones decided to take an entire village. I do not approve of this telling change and I worry that my impending victory and then resurrection might not be so certain if we're going to go about _changing _things. Ah, and I thought this tale couldn't get any worse!"

"You don't like your tale?" Fayne asked, surprised.

"Of course not! It involves me dying every single time I tell it! And no matter how many times I go through this, it's still a bit of a leap of faith that I'll be brought back alright," Farrara said.

"If that's really how you feel then why did you go out for the part?"

"Anyone can have a ballad. We come up with new ones every now and then, as it happens, and they must all be retold now and again," Farrara explained. "But there are only seven great heroes. Sir Sagrell is one and Sir Farrara is another. As you can imagine, openings among the great heroes are rare so when one seat opens, you don't stop to consider if you like the telling you just take it. As a mortal, you were very fortunate with Sagrell's story."

Fayne could agree with that and the two of them set off to find Bloody Bones.

"Ah, so the witch was right! Help has come for Sir Farrara the Fair," Bloody Bones said mockingly.

"Witch? What witch?" Fayne asked, immediately on alert. "Is this the same maid that Ficon won't tell me more about when my predecessor died?"

Bloody Bones shrugged. "I'm sure I don't know. I wasn't there."

"Why so surprised that I'm here with Sir Farrara?" Fayne asked. "Isn't that a part of the telling?"

"It might be," Bloody Bones admitted. "But I'd still like to insult his sense of direction."

"Also, may I say that you are _extremely _well-muscled," Fayne complicated. "Are all fae like you?"

"They are not," Bloody Bones said, flexing his muscles.

"Is that what Ysa considered to be an abomination? Because if so, yeah, I'm not really seeing it," Fayne said. "And the no death thing doesn't really seem so bad given that you don't appear to be withering away into nothing from age like Echo. Since your people come back from the Great Cycle all the time anyway…yeah, this really doesn't seem so bad, actually. Though I'm sure Ysa meant to be quite an ass about it."

"It's not the no dying part that's annoying," Bloody Bones admitted. "Though I don't see why people can't just call me Famor."

"I'll call you Famor," Fayne told him. "The name 'the Bloody Bones', which isn't really a name at all really, is rather gross anyway."

The Bloody Bones smiled at her. "And I do thank you for that, Sagrell. What I really hate is the endless cycle of loneliness and defeat. All I want is love. Is that too much to ask?"

Fayne shook her head. "Not really, no, but we've _got _to talk about your ways of getting a girlfriend! I don't know what was considered romantic way back when all this started but abducting people is no way to get them to like you and if it appears that they are coming to like you it's a sign of a serious psychological condition brought on by the kidnapping."

"Well what do you suggest?" Bloody Bones asked. "Mortals are so short-lived and my own kind see me as nothing but a villain."

"I cannot believe you're giving dating advice to the Bloody Bones," Farrara muttered, shaking his head.

"I don't know. Maybe you could try dating a mortal just to get back into things and learn what is and is not appropriate behavior. Dating doesn't have to be forever. Chances are, you two will part ways long before she dies of old age. And that's not a bad thing! As a fae who can't die, the idea of forever should be kind of intimidating anyway. I do know that taking hostages doesn't help anybody."

"Well, I wasn't actually going to hurt them anyway," Bloody Bones admitted. "Tell you what, how about you just take them?"

"See, this is progress! The way I see it, though I'm sure this will be considered highly blasphemous, the telling can only start with your consent. No matter how much Sir Farrara might want to attack you and rescue the maid, he can only do that if you abduct one in the first place. If you just don't do that you can break free of your villainous role."

"Stop it, this isn't what we came here to do," Farrara hissed.

Bloody Bones sighed. "See, you make it sound so easy."

"It is literally the easiest thing. Just…don't kidnap people. It's that easy. Personally, I don't remember having ever kidnapped someone. Of course, I'm having memory problems so I could have kidnapped a ton of people but at any rate I've given it up now!" Fayne said brightly.

"I can't just 'give it up'," Bloody Bones said, sighing.

"Why not?"

"It's my fate," Bloody Bones said. "And since I'm the one and only original, I can't even retire from my role."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Oh, not this again! Look, if you don't want to do something then just don't do it."

"I asked you to leave before and forget Sir Farrara, to let me kill him in peace. Well I hate to tell you but no matter what you did I'd attack you anyway and try to claim you as my own," Bloody Bones admitted. "It's sad but true."

"And kind of _entirely on you_," Fayne said pointedly.

Bloody Bones didn't answer but merely started to attack.

Fayne ignored him as well as she could while he was attacking her to focus on his sprite companions so that Farrara could get himself properly killed. Once he was dead, she focused on Bloody Bones. After doing a weird sort of slow-mo color distortion thing and impaling him with a surprisingly solid sword that appeared to be made of light, she went over to revive Farrara.

"And…I'm back," Farrara announced, sitting up. "Nice job. I see that Hallam's trust in you is not misplaced."

"Hallam's trust?" Fayne repeated. "As far as I can tell there's no real 'trust' involved. I just won the competition is all."

"He could have refused to acknowledge you as the victor if he didn't think that you were good enough," Farrara told her, standing up.

Fayne stared at him in horror. "He can do that?"

"He can," Farrara confirmed. "But he didn't and that's all that mattered. I say…is that Bloody Bones?"

"Yes…"

Farrara walked over to him and knelt down beside him. "Is he…is he actually dead? Did you just kill Bloody Bones?"

"Oh, I really don't know."

"The one cursed by Ysa to never ever die? You somehow killed him?" Farrara couldn't believe it.

"If it makes you feel any better, it was pretty much an accident," Fayne admitted. "And I thought he couldn't be killed anyway."

"It was his fate to never be killed, yes," Farrara agreed. "Tell me what happened, exactly."

"Well…I was fighting him and things got weird and suddenly there was all this purple light and energy and then a glowy sword thing materialized in my hand and I ran him through with it and he died," Fayne summarized. "The end."

Farrara whistled. "That sounds an awful lot like you somehow beat him to death with his own fate."

"That sounds…kind of awesome, actually," Fayne said. "Did I really? And he did want to die anyway. Maybe. That's not really what he said but at least he's not lonely anymore?"

"His fate to never join the Great Cycle has been shattered," Farrara said solemnly. "I do wonder what will happen to him now. And, more to the point, what will happen to my telling?"

Fayne shrugged. "We can always find a new Bloody Bones. I'm sure the role won't be as popular as one of the hero roles but for someone who wants to make a name for themselves I can see them seeing this as a good opportunity."

"You really should see some sort of fate weaver about this," Farrara said seriously.

"I'll get _right _on that," Fayne lied.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Fayne returned to King Wencen uncertain of what to say.

"Well?" Wencen asked expectantly. "How did it go?"

"Well the good news is that Farrara died fighting Bloody Bones and I brought him back," she said.

"That sounds like there's bad news," Wencen said.

"What makes you think that?"

"If there wasn't you wouldn't have said 'the good news is', you would have just told me your news which happened to be good," Wencen pointed out.

"Maybe I just wanted to make sure you knew it was good before I told it to you," Fayne suggested.

"You're stalling," Wencen accused. "What happened?"

"I…might have accidentally killed Bloody Bones," Fayne admitted.

Wencen's jaw dropped. "What? How could you…he's unkillable! It is his curse! How could you possibly have killed him?"

Fayne shrugged uncomfortably. "Oh, I don't k now. Something about ripping his fate out and impaling him with it, according to Farrara."

"How would you even do a thing like that?" Wencen asked, flabbergasted. "And _why_?"

"I don't know! It was kind of an accident! And I'm not even sure that that's what happened. It was Farrara's theory and he was kind of dead at the time," Fayne said defensively. "So I was kind of hoping you'd tell me that Bloody Bones actually dying isn't a big deal because he always does that in the telling and then, because of the curse, he merely rises again and I didn't just accidentally mess things up."

"I wish I could tell you that but it would be an untruth," Wencen said. "Normally Sir Farrara and Sir Sagrell are forced to knock him out. If you killed him by breaking his fate I do wonder if he will even be able to return to the Great Cycle and be reborn of if you have killed him permanently like a mortal."

Fayne crossed his arms. "Well if he won't come back then it's kind of rich blaming me since _I _wasn't the one who made his fate to not return to the Great Cycle in the first place."

Wencen shook his head. "It does not matter. How would you like to create a telling of your very own?"

"Would the telling be in my name or in Sir Sagrell's?"

"You are Sir Sagrell," Wencen said blankly.

Fayne sighed. "Lovely. And would this need to be recreated over and over and over again over time like all the others?"

Wencen hesitated. "Ordinarily I would say 'yes' but things are changing so much and we simply do not understand why or how. Ideally yes it would but perhaps, due to the nature of this interference, if we were to set things right this tale would not be one capable of repeating itself. But we would remember it nonetheless!"

"What do you want me to do?"

"We have a librarian, Tenhwa. She is…an odd creature," Wencen said. His neutral phrasing was spoiled by the fact that he was making 'she's crazy' motions. Fayne hadn't yet met her but she was a little irked on her behalf. "I need you to recover the ballad of The Hero and the Maid from one of the Fae Cairns. This is very, very important."

Fayne didn't exactly know what a Fae Cairne was but figured she could find out from Tenhwa. "Seriously? The Hero and the Maid? All the ballads I've heard so far have involved some form of hero and a maid. What makes this one special that it needs to be given the most generic name ever?"

"_This _maid is the villain," Wencen explained. "The Maid of Windemere, in fact. And I am the hero. As king, I am in some ways the most important hero."

"Ah, so this is your ballad?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "Then shouldn't you know it? Why do you need it recovered?"

Wencen flushed dark blue. "I have been doing this role for a very long time. I know my part perfectly. But perhaps I do not have every single word of the original tale memorized. There was never any need. Hallam has suspicions and wants to see if there's some small detail we are missing."

"So you suspect that this mysterious witch maid that people keep talking about is the Maid of Windemere," Fayne realized. "Well, I don't know nearly everything about your tales but that does make sense to me. Where is Hallam, anyway? I wanted to talk to him."

"Oh, don't worry your mortal self about Hallam," Wencen said, rather condescendingly. "He's off trying to puzzle through this mess."

Fayne's eye twitched. "I'll worry about whoever I like, thanks, and I just said that I wanted to talk to him. But if he's not in then he's not in. Mortal or not, I do get that."

"I did not mean to offend you," Wencen said apologetically.

"I'm sure you didn't. But in the future, try and remember that referring to the fact that one day I'm going to die and probably won't come back from that death as some sort of disability that prevents me from understanding basic concepts is _incredibly _insulting!" Fayne exclaimed before turning to go.

She found Tenhwa easily enough though she was a little surprised by all the green glowing magic surrounding her.

"What's that?" she asked, making sure not to get too close to it.

"It's an imprisonment spell," Tenhwa explained calmly. "The Maid of Windemere cast in last night so I'm so glad you came around when you did! Normally I'd offer you some hospitality but, as you can see, I'm in a bit of a bind right now."

"The Maid of Windemere?" Fayne repeated. "You're sure it was her? You saw and recognized her and everything?"

"Yes, I can confirm that she was here as well as her accomplice Nix the Troll. She used the same spell she used in Two Knights and a Troll but since she took all my Cairns I simply cannot recall what the counterspell was," Tenhwa explained. "Creth and Airmer have been trying to get them back but, well, it's been a day with no results and while that may not seem like a very long time I have been stuck here the entire time. Perhaps you'll have better luck. Mortals can be so ingenious."

Fayne smiled at that, deciding that she liked this woman. "What is a Cairne?"

"Oh, my apologies, you wouldn't know, would you?" Tenhwa asked rhetorically. "You're so new to the House of Ballads and whatnot. And it's been very hectic since before you even arrived. As you may know, we fae are used to recording our stories with lorestones. The only problem is that they are often spread out over large distances and so finding them all and finding them in the correct order can be a little trying. Additionally, though it is not common, lorestones can be destroyed and thus important parts of our history are lost. Thus, Hallam and myself decided to create permanent receptacles for our stories and those are the Cairns. They can only be used with an Echostone but I happen to have one in the back room here."

Fayne nodded her head. "I wouldn't think of something like the lorestones as temporary but I suppose, as a fae, you'd have to look at the concept of permanence a little differently than I would. Can you tell me about the Maid of Windemere? And yes, I know that the actual ballad is gone but just the basics. I don't even know that."

"Well the basics are that the Maid was in love with King Wencen but he already had a queen. She could not abide by this and eventually kidnapped him and enchanted him to love her. Queen Belmaid snuck into the castle and removed the enchantment she was using to control wild fae surrounding the castle. Wencen knew that he needed to defeat her but that her magic was too powerful to be able to win in a straightforward manner. Therefore, he pretended to give in to her desire and when her guard was down he slew her," Tenhwa told her.

Fayne winced. "Ouch. Of course, if she was holding him captive and trying to force him to love her I'm not sure she didn't deserve it but what a way to go. Does she really think that just being evil is going to win him over? I'm pretty sure that's the last thing that would ever work."

Tenhwa shrugged. "I suppose the original Maid of Windemere did and now it's a pattern we will repeat until the end. Or until she somehow forces a change."

"What about Nix? Who is he?"

"Nix the Troll is the villain in Two Knights and a Troll and Creth and Airmer are actually the knights spoken of," Tenhwa replied. "It is about the dangers of trying to be something you're not."

Fayne groaned. "Oh, I am _not _going to like this, am I? It's going to have a nice little moral about how you should just stay in your place and not try to do things that people say you can't."

"Well when people say you can't do things it's usually because you can't. And if Fate says you can't then it's a certainty so why invite tragedy by trying when you're only going to fail?" Tenhwa asked.

"I don't believe in Fate," Fayne said, crossing her arms.

"You don't have to. Fate controlling your actions isn't conditional upon believing that this is true," Tenhwa said. "Nix wanted desperately to be human. One day, the Maid of Windemere decided to play a joke on Nix. She cast on enchantment on him so that he would think he was human and then, overjoyed, Nix went to go settle in the nearest human settlement. When Creth and Airmer arrived, they treated him like a human and challenged him to a gentleman's duel where they slew him in fair combat."

Fayne was gazing at Tenhwa with growing horror.

"What?" Tenhwa asked, confused. "I know that I don't have the ballad in front of me for consultation but I didn't tell it _that _badly and you would not know the difference if I did."

"Look, I know this is just the abridged version but there is a _lot _missing from here," Fayne said. "And it kind of makes your knights look less like heroes and more like assholes."

"How so?" Tenhwa asked. "They eliminated a dangerous troll."

"Even trolls shouldn't be killed just for existing!" Fayne burst out. "I mean, I kill trolls all the time but only when they're attacking me. And if Nix thought he was human he clearly wasn't attacking anyone. So what if he wanted to live as a human? If the villagers wanted him dead for that I don't think very much of them."

"He tried to live as a human but he simply _wasn't _human. It wasn't a case of prejudice but of practicality," Tenhwa insisted. "He tried to settle in but he was too big. He kept crushing everything and with the enchantment he didn't even notice."

"So why not explain it to him or dispel the enchantment or something?" Fayne asked. "He wasn't trying to live as a human before he thought he was one. He seems like a pretty clear victim of at least the Maid of Windemere and probably Creth and Airmer, too."

"And yet he chose to side with her, back when the tales were being developed," Tenhwa pointed out.

"Assuming he had a choice, Fate being what it was," Fayne said sarcastically.

"It is…difficult to explain the difference between choice and destiny," Tenhwa admitted. "Fate is something like 'the Maid will never win Wencen's love.' Her choice is to keep concocting these absurd plans to try and do so. Admittedly, the House of Ballads would prefer that the Maid did not as it would ruin some of our finest ballads but she chooses to play the role as anyone. If she is fated to be killed by Wencen then she is fated to be killed by Wencen, though whoever kills her would be Wencen by default, but the circumstances of her death are in her hands and death is no terrible thing to a fae. Nix didn't have to help her after she put him in the position of thinking he was human but I suppose he blames the knights instead."

"I wonder, do trolls like Nix come back to life or audition for roles as well?" Fayne said. "Because I can't really see that."

Tenhwa shook her head. "No, trolls are fae so they return."

"Really?" Fayne asked, surprised. "I tended to think of fae as just people like you, the summer and winter fae."

"It's a common misconception but every animal you encounter that has magic is a fae," Tenhwa corrected her. "That is how he was able to side with the Maiden after his death."

"I suppose that if they knew Nix would return it's less terrible that they killed him than if they killed a mortal troll that would not," Fayne conceded. "But all the same, if they were truly treating him as human – as the ballad lauds them for – they wouldn't have challenged him in the first place. Humans don't just challenge other humans to duels for living somewhere. And killing him instead of trying to solve the problem another way is just lazy."

"It broke the enchantment, didn't it?" Tenhwa asked rhetorically. "And at any rate, all of this was so very long ago."

Fayne nodded. "You guys are just going through the motions, I get it. I do feel sorry for him, though. Not really her because she really should just give up on Wencen already but what a terrible thing it must be not to be happy in your own skin."

* * *

Fayne found two fae sitting inside of a cave.

"Are you two Creth and Airmer?" she asked. "I can see why you haven't solved the problem if you two are just going to be literally sitting around."

"Well it's not like standing around would be any _more _productive and we have no more ideas than that at this point," one of them grouched.

"Ah, he gets like that," the other said. "I am Sir Airmer. I suppose you must be Sir Sagrell since you certainly fit Hallam's depiction."

"And was Hallam's description any more detailed than 'mortal'?" Fayne asked sweetly.

"He also mentioned that you were female," Airmer replied. "The Maid was here earlier but she left."

"So you just gave up?" Fayne asked.

Airmer shook his head. "Oh, not us! We're looking for the Cairns. She left Nix the Troll here to deal with us. If you'd like to join our little hunting party, feel free."

"That depends," Fayne said. "If I join you will you actually at least pretend to still be looking?"

"That does sound reasonable," Airmer agreed. He and Creth took off.

"I guess we're going this way then," Fayne murmured.

They eventually ran into Nix himself who, despite trying to pass himself off as a human every now and again, couldn't be bothered to actually speak to them.

"There, we have all the Cairn," Airmer said, satisfied. "I wish that I knew what he was doing here of all places, though."

"Other than trying to stop us from stopping the Maid?" Creth asked.

"It's not a part of his ballad, though. It's all so very weird. It's almost like things are happening differently than they have every other cycle," Airmer complained.

"That does seem to be the general idea," Fayne agreed. "It's been happening to everyone. Even you two aren't reenacting a ballad right now."

"I can only hope Hallam will be able to explain it," Airmer said worriedly.

"I kind of already did."

"We will meet you back at the House of Ballads," Airmer informed her.

"So…what? I helped you get the Cairn so you're not even going to keep trying to fix this?" Fayne couldn't believe it.

"Goodbye," Airmer said before he and Creth sped away.

Fayne rolled her eyes and headed back to Tenhwa. Some help they turned out to be.

"I'm back," Fayne announced unnecessarily.

"Excellent," Tenhwa said brightly. "But you've returned without the most important Cairn of all."

"I'm assuming you mean The Hero and the Maid," Fayne said. "But how could you possibly know that?"

"I just do," Tenhwa replied. "Unfortunately, the Cairns are warded so they will not reveal their secrets."

"Why?" Fayne asked.

Tenhwa frowned, puzzled. "What do you mean 'why'?"

"Just that. Why are the Cairns warded? The whole point of them is to record the ballads. The ballads can't possibly be a secret because the House of Ballads always reenacts them and just loves to tell anyone who wanders by all about them," Fayne pointed out. "So why make the Cairns so difficult to use? It's not like, this Maid of Windemere strangeness aside, people are really able to change the ballads if they know them or not."

"That's a good question," Tenhwa admitted. "I never really stopped to think about it. It just seemed so natural to ward them. I suppose, because of how convenient it would be to have a Cairn instead of a lorestone, the wards are to stop people from stealing them and keeping them for their own personal use."

"I guess I can see that," Fayne admitted.

"Good. Now I need you to go find the words that will free me from this spell by listening to the Cairn using the Echostone in the next room," Tenhwa instructed.

She activated the Echostone just the same way she would try to activate a Lorestone but she wasn't entirely sure why there was a short introduction before she even selected which Cairn she wanted to hear. It might be nice the first few times but ultimately if the Echostone were used a lot that would get really annoying.

"The story of two valiant souls I bring. Of the lords named Airmer and Creth, I sing. Two hearts united against common foes, the thoughts of one in mind, the other knows. Lord Creth, of Knights most stoic and grave, Lord Airmer's hand and shadow, the Brave. And gentle Airmer, his equal in might, dawn to Creth's desk, day to his night. Here is the tale of how they stopped a Troll: the Maid of Windemere corrupted its soul."

Fayne waited patiently but apparently that was it. Really? That was how much was on a Cairn? And there needed to be five Cairns for this? How useful could the Cairns possibly be if they could only record a short paragraph anyway? The fae weren't really much for practicality, were they?

She put on the next one.

"The Troll named Nix had a most troubled heart. In nature was it displeased with its part. It hated its difference from the norm and wished to shed its current form. In grief, it went to the Maid of Windemere. She motioned to Nix, and beckoned him near. 'It is your wish to be human, I see,' she whispered to the Troll, in glee. 'I shall grant your wish and make you so. You are a human now,' she cackled. 'Go.' And so the troll named Nix, to town it came. Never suspecting it was still the same. It crushed the road and split the wall. And Creth and Airmer were sure to fall: They faced the troll and fought to no avail. The wise knights knew what was wrong in our tale. 'The treacherous Maid of Windemere at play. We know, in part, what is wrong with this Fae.' And so, Lord Airmer shouted to Lord Creth, 'Challenge this troll to a duel to the death.' The troll, still under the wicked Maid's spell, and was human, it thought, and all was well, rampaged throughout the countryside in joy, treating all as toys. Lord Airmer slowly approached him and said, 'If you are human, deal as such instead. Face us, if that is your fate. Duel us and reveal the truth of your state.' Then the troll and Fae did battle and fought: alas, it was not as the troll had thought. After he had won, Lord Creth said to Nix, with a mind to ease and a will to fix, 'You are a troll, and that is good, my friend. You have no faults, no wrong to mend. But if it be your wish to join their kind, a better way you must find. There is naught wrong with following your will as long as it does not bring others ill.' Again, the heroes of honor stayed true: the story of a Troll and the Knights two."

Fayne just stood there for a moment, taking it all in. "What the-what was that? Was I listening to the right story? Tenhwa said that she was trapped by a spell from this ballad. I didn't hear any immobilization spell here! It certainly would have helped them stop Nix. The only spell that _might _have been cast would have been cast by the Maid of Windemere to make Nix think that he was human but I'm not convinced, based on what I heard, that she did anything more than pretend to cast a spell and tell him he was human. And there's certainly no counter-spell mentioned!"

She sighed and started pacing around the room. "And in addition to this, that was a really really badly told story. I'm sure I could write one better. And they seem to be leaving out all sorts of details. And I'm sure Creth appreciated Airmer making him challenge Nix. For instance, Creth and Airmer working together were unable to stop Nix so a one-on-one duel could kill him? What, did they make him using a fencing foil or something? And how does it work that for Nix to prove himself human he has to fight a fae in a duel to the death? If he actually was human there was no way he'd survive that! And why was the town so feeble that Nix couldn't even walk on the roads without cracking it? I could see him breaking homes or furniture but the roads itself? I think that one's on the town. Trolls don't crack the ground so they shouldn't crack the roads. Maybe they could have tried to reason with it? I don't recall any mention of trying to reason with Nix."

Fayne stopped pacing and stood abruptly in front of the Echostone again. "And they completely changed the ending! Creth is all 'it's cool if you want to be a human but you're not right now. Follow your heart as long as you aren't hurting anyone.' That doesn't sound like the Creth I met and no mention is made of murdering Nix here. At least they mention that he was wrecking havoc though I'm still kind of judging them for being bad people. Why the huge discrepancy between the story and the reenactment? I don't think we can infer from the challenged duel to the death that Nix dies at the end and clearly, given the impermanence of death among fae and the fact that the House of Ballads keeps reenacting this tale, the fact Nix dies isn't meant to be a secret. It's one thing to get a few details wrong from not having the ballad memorized, though if they're all this short there is really no excuse not to have your own ballad or ballads memorized. But did they just get the ending wrong altogether? Is Nix not supposed to constantly be killed by Airmer and Creth but these incarnations just didn't do their homework? Is that why Nix sided with the Maid of Windemere? And how, exactly, does she think setting a troll who thinks he's human on a town is going to win her Wencen's love? Maybe she's just a terrible person in general. Maybe I shouldn't listen to anymore of the actual ballads."

She went back to Tenhwa.

"What is it?" Tenhwa asked. "Did you discover the words to the counter spell?"

"No," Fayne said.

"Then why are you here?"

"There are no words to a counterspell. This story doesn't make any sense. I don't know what you want me to do," Fayne said.

"Well I can't help you from here," Tenhwa pointed out. "Go back and listen again until you've got it."

Fayne disappeared into the back room again for twenty minutes before coming back with a piece of paper in her hands.

"Have you discovered it now?"

Fayne shook her head. "I did copy down the entire story onto this piece of paper, though. I'll read it to you and if this is really so easy maybe you can figure it out."

After Fayne had finished reading, Tenhwa said, "You're human now, go." With that, the barrier flickered and disappeared and Tenhwa was free to step away from the spot she'd been imprisoned on.

"How did you even know that?" Fayne asked, astonished.

"It was the only bit of magic used so it must be a counterspell," Tenhwa said simply.

"But…but it was never identified as a counterspell and did she even use magic and no one was imprisoned and how do you know it was a counterspell to a curse that trapped you and _I don't get any of this_," Fayne complained.

"Well, you're not actually a fae and you're not a librarian," Tenhwa pointed out. "Perhaps that might explain why you can't see it."

"For the record, this is the only 'because you're a mortal' explanation I'm willing to accept," Fayne declared.

"I suppose I could have told you all this sooner but I wanted to be freed and, not knowing your character, I figured holding out on you would be the best way to guarantee that you'd help me," Tenhwa said. "Since the Maid of Windemere has our most important tale and can somehow change the telling, I worry that she will do just that and make herself finally win."

"But why would she even need the original story?" Fayne asked. "Or the five-part epic that's really not all that long? Wouldn't it be easier to change things if she just ignores what is written and does her own thing?"

"I do not know. Perhaps she took the tale not so she could use it but so that we could not," Tenhwa suggested. "And you will have to remember that the first time the tale unfolded it was entirely her own initiative so perhaps she wants to check it and make sure following her instincts do not merely lead to her repeating past mistakes. Go find Hallam and tell him that we have failed."

"I don't really feel like _I _failed in any real way," Fayne objected. "Except, perhaps, failing to understand how random words from a story was an imprisonment counterspell but I still got you out eventually. But I will go."

* * *

When Fayne arrived back at the house of Ballads, she went to go see Wencen first even though the person she was told to find was Hallam. It was no matter, though, as he wasn't standing where he had been standing earlier so there was really no possible way to locate him.

Instead, the projection of a fae woman was there being ignored by everyone else in the room.

"There's no point in looking for your beloved Wencen and his foolish Court of Enchantments," she said gleefully. "They are mine now as you will soon be."

"Excuse me?" Fayne asked. " 'My beloved'? I met the guy once. He seemed okay, I guess, but I was a little annoyed that I even had to detour to see him in the first place. And he wasn't very helpful. And he had a really unoriginal ballad name. And if I'm never going to find them why bother warning me?"

"Maybe I'm just being polite," the fae said. Fayne figured she was probably the Maid of Windemere. "I wouldn't want you to waste your last moments of freedom of a futile quest, after all."

"I also highly resent your implication that you're going to enslave me. There's nothing I hate more than a lack of free will. There's a good chance I'm going to kill you for that," Fayne warned. "But you're a fae so you'll get over it."

"Oh, what an amusing little mortal!" the Maid said condescendingly before vanishing.

"I really hate her," Fayne announced to the world at large. She bumped into Hallam right outside the room she had been in. "Oh, hi. What's this about all of the members of the Court of Enchantment except myself being kidnapped?"

"That's pretty much the long and short of it," Hallam said, shrugging. "I wasn't here, either. It's kind of faltering that she would need me to be absent before daring to steal everyone away. This is almost like the start of her ballad except she usually gives us notice and only takes Wencen."

"What a polite villain, to let you know she will be abducting your king!" Fayne exclaimed.

Another shrug. "She has some odd ways. Listen, we could just go charging in and try to kill her but she has some weird magic and so that might not work. It would be a big waste of time if we were to charge in there, have it not work, then go find out more about the magic so we could go back and kill her so let's just nix that first killing attempt and go find out more about her."

"Are you sure? Because I have it on somewhat sketchy haven't actually bothered to get it confirmed yet authority that I can change things, too. I'll probably be fine," Fayne said.

"I am indeed. Go find Father Etair and ask him what's going on. He's very wise and magical and helped us with the Carin," Hallam ordered.

"But why would he know what's going on?" Fayne asked.

"Because we haven't got anybody better to ask," Hallam said. "If this doesn't pan out, I promise you can go confront her on your own."

"Well, what's one more diversion?" Fayne asked rhetorically. Hallam pointed to where she was to go on her map and off she headed.

Just outside the village, she ran into a man sitting on the ground.

"Hello, I hope you are well," the man greeted. "I am Brother Holt. Will you do me a favor?"

Fayne stared at him. "Seriously? I literally just met you. Most people at least put on some sort of pretence of getting me to offer to help first."

"I figure that just wastes time," Holt said. "I had a friend, Brother Padric, and he decided to go off adventuring. I haven't heard from him in a year so I think he might be dead. Can you check it out?"

"How?" Fayne asked blankly. "Do you know where he was going? Maybe he's been dead for a year and his body wouldn't be there. Maybe he survived, or died later, and moved on? How would I know if I had found a body that it was his?"

"I will pay you to think of your own answer to these questions," Holt said. "I do know where he was going to be headed, though. Splitrock depths. Maybe he's dead there or for some reason left behind a signed letter explaining exactly where he was going."

"I find it unlikely but I might find myself up there eventually. I'll see if I stumble across anything," Fayne offered. "That's literally all I will promise."

"Well it's better than anyone else is doing," Holt reasoned. "Thank you, stranger!"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

There were a few people out and about in the village and Fayne decided to bother the one that was actually working in a garden instead of standing around doing nothing because he seemed to be more responsible.

"Hello," the man greeted her. "You must be looking to meet with Father Etair."

Fayne drew back, surprised. "I…yes, actually. But how could you possibly know that?"

"We have a pretty simple village but we're almost constantly receiving all manner of strange visitors and they're all here to see him," the man explained. "I hope I'm not being rude by guessing that you're probably one of them."

"That does make sense," Fayne conceded. "Who are you? And where can I find Father Etair?"

"My name is Aedwin and I'm a brother here," Aedwin said. "Father Etair lives on the second floor of that bunkhouse over there." He pointed to it.

"I'll go see him then," Fayne said. "Thanks for your help."

It was a good thing she'd bothered asking for directions and hadn't had to go through literally every building there looking for the right one and having to ask each occupant if they were Etair. When she got to the second floor of the bunkhouse, she strolled in and stopped dead at the sight of a very clearly murdered person on the floor.

"Oh, this is not fair," she complained. "And…I guess probably sucks for him, too, but at least he won't have to deal with the fallout from this. I wonder if this is just a really annoying coincidence or the Maid of Windemere actually being competent and tying up loose ends."

She headed back outside and approached Aedwin again.

"Hello," Aedwin said pleasantly. "That was fast. Most people don't take literally five minutes to see Father Etair if they've trekked all the way here from…wherever it is you've come from. Were you just delivering a package or looking for a signature or something quick like that?"

Fayne winced. "Ah, not exactly…"

"What do you mean?"

"So I went in there like you said but…um…Father Etair's kind of dead," Fayne said all in a rush.

"Kind of dead?" Aedwin repeated. "How can he only be 'kind of' dead? Is he unconscious or something?"

"No, he's fully and entirely dead," Fayne amended.

"I see. I suppose the obvious thing to do is to ask if you had anything to do with it," Aedwin said.

"Me?" Fayne asked, offended. "How could I have possibly done it? I was up there for like two minutes!"

"How long could it possibly take to kill him?" Aedwin challenged. "He was like eighty."

"That…is true. But why would I report the murder to you then?" Fayne asked.

Aedwin shrugged. "Because you think we're too stupid to figure out you'd killed him. Because you don't think we can hold you responsible for your actions. Because you want to brag. Because you really hadn't thought this part through. Because-"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Fayne interrupted. "But seriously, I didn't kill him."

"Well if you didn't do it, and I'm still not convinced that's the case, then it was probably the last man we knew who saw him alive," Aedwin said reasonably. "They were heard violently quarreling just a few hours ago and then Brother Wulf – that's his apprentice – hurried out looking almost panicked. We know how Father Etair gets after these kinds of things so we thought it best to leave him alone to find his equilibrium again."

"Yeah, I'd probably suspect him, too," Fayne agreed. "And not just because I'm the only other suspect."

"They used to be best buddies but now they're not," Aedwin continued. "Ever since they repaired the village well. Kind of a weird thing to tear two people apart, come to think of it."

"And you didn't try to investigate?" Fayne asked.

Aedwin laughed. "Investigate? Are you kidding? If something _did _happen none of us want to know about it or to risk our lives in such a way! But if you'd like to then by all means. If you see Brother Wulf, try to arrest him or kill him in self-defense for us, will you? And feel free to search the bunkhouse."

"Why would I search the bunkhouse?" Fayne asked. "I already found the body and took everything that I was allowed to take without looting."

"How very thoughtful," Aedwin said sarcastically. "You might be able to find information about whatever it is you seek. What _is _it that you seek?"

Fayne shrugged. "I don't know. Honestly if I feel like I'm wasting time with these even without the murder. I don't really care to go through this things and find information. If Wulf can't tell me anything then clearly it's not something I need to know. I'm going to the well. I'm glad you're open to the idea of me killing Wulf in self-defense because if I see him that's probably what's going to happen."

Aedwin blinked. "Well, none of us are going to jump to defend someone who just killed our leader. And he never was very good at prayer. And how can you not be good at _praying_? But it's just…if you're _planning _on killing someone in self-defense then doesn't that sort of take away from-"

"Sorry, got to go, bye," Fayne said hurriedly. She went off to the well and found a crystal. She wasn't sure what it did but it was glowing and might be important so she would keep an eye out for others like it. She hoped she wasn't supposed to destroy the crystals because, having not bothered to do any research, she wouldn't be aware if that were the case.

She was attacked by some non-human-esque fae though she really had no idea why they would be in a well and that really didn't sound like a very hygienic thing to have in one's water supply. No wonder the well was broken or whatever. How had Etair and Wulf managed to deal with that when they came down to fix it? Or perhaps they had only arrived afterwards when Wulf went evil or something.

She still felt entirely justified in her decision not to try and find out more before doing this.

She came across a man sleeping on one of the mini-islands and rather hoped she had found this mysterious Brother Wulf.

"What? Who are you?" he demanded when she poked him with her foot to rouse him.

"My name is Fayne," Fayne said. "Though I guess that doesn't really answer your question. Are you Wulf?"

"Yes," Wulf said, climbing inelegantly to his feet. There was a strange green glow about his head which meant he was under some sort of spell. "Are you here to destroy the crystals? I'll kill you first!"

"I…don't know," Fayne admitted. "I didn't check. I have them all here with me. What's going on? What's with the crystals? And why did you assume I was here to destroy them?"

"Well Father Etair and I found them the other day and then this strange maid-"

"Now _you're _referring to her as a maid?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "Why can't you just say 'strange woman' like everyone else? Is she just always going to be referred to like that by everyone no matter how bizarre that is?"

Wulf shrugged. "She just looked like a maid. She appeared out of nowhere and wanted the crystals but Father Etair was hiding them behind his back so she couldn't get them. He dropped the crystals down the well and they told me to kill him so I did."

"Wait, wait, wait. Back up," Fayne instructed. "Some crystals spoke to you and told you that you should kill Etair?"

Wulf nodded. "That is what happened."

"And you _listened_?"

Wulf had the grace to look a little embarrassed. "They're very persuasive. And they demand to not be destroyed. So now I have to kill anybody who wants to kill them. What's so strange about that?"

"If I _were _going to destroy the crystals, how would I go about doing that?" Fayne asked. "Speaking completely hypothetically, of course."

"You'd have to take this here prismere whistle," Wulf said, holding up a red whistle, "and blow into it. That would allow you, for perhaps half a minute, to see the crystals and destroy them."

"Thanks. Now, you are clearly under some sort of spell and if I had any sort of skill in dispellment maybe I could save you."

"I think the word is 'dispelling'," Wulf corrected.

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "I _like _dispellment. So I wish I could save you. But I kind of was focusing on alchemy so that every time I go near a plant it stop withering away into nothing because it was kind of getting frustrating and not making much sense. And I wanted to be more persuasive but there's really no arguing with a person enchanted. So I'm just going to have to kill you, aren't I?"

Wulf nodded. "Probably."

"Sorry about this then. And no, I'm not willing to concede that this isn't self-defense," Fayne said before she summoned lightning and struck him dead. Then she took the whistle and anything else he had on him and went off to destroy the crystals. The melody she had to play each time was rather annoying but it was an annoyance she had to live with.

The cave and the crystals dealt with, she returned to the House of Ballads and hoped that Hallam would have a better idea of what was going on than she did.

"Did you find Father Etair?" Hallam asked her urgently. "Did he tell you anything useful? What magic is the Maid working with?"

Fayne opened her mouth to tell him that she had found him but he had been murdered and it was probably all the Maid of Windemere's doing but to her surprise instead asked, "How do you know him anyway?"

"Oh, he used to come out to watch some of our ballads," Hallam told her. "A dangerous pastime for a mortal but he was hardy enough. He pointed out that while we may repeat our ballads time and time again, if no one is there to witness them people would just have to take our word for it. And while fae are inherently trustworthy about these things, I can see where mortals would not be and would have difficulty understanding the lack of proof so I permitted him to stay. He's quite brilliant and it's been a good forty years knowing him."

"Have you ever noticed how often you give off the impression that Wencen's just a figurehead and you're the one running the show?" Fayne asked.

"I had not."

Fayne had a bit better of an idea of why she hadn't been able to tell Hallam about Etair when she stepped back and a glowing Maid of Windemere appeared before her, probably still not actually there.

"I should have known that Hallam the White and his little pet would uncover my schemes!" she hissed.

"Actually, us finding out about you killing Etair and those mysterious crystals – which I haven't gotten around to telling him about yet – is a complete coincidence," Fayne said. "He was really just fishing sending me to him."

"Or _Fate_."

"Or _not_," Fayne said sourly.

"Wencen is with me and I'm not giving him back ever. If this should displease you, feel free to send a mighty warrior to come…discuss the matter," the Maid said provocatively. "You're pretty much the only one available so I warn you now that you can't really delegate. And you should definitely know that I fully intend to bewitch you when you come."

"But why bother with that?" Fayne asked. "Not that I don't appreciate your honesty because I really do. Why not just swoop in and take me like you took everybody else? I get that I was out at the time but surely that wasn't a one-time bewitch everybody that was around and can never be used again sort of thing."

"It wasn't," the Maid confirmed. "But while I needed to quickly and efficiently get most of the house, you and Hallam – and he doesn't really count anyway for reasons – are the only members of the House of Ballads untouched so I can afford to just wait until you come to rescue everyone. It saves me a trip, actually. Plus this way should be more exciting. I don't want my victory to be _too _easy."

With that, she vanished.

"This is not just about the court anymore," Hallam told her seriously. "You have roused the Maid's interest and she wishes to add you to her collection."

"And how is that any different than her wanting to collect me so she can get a full set of House of Ballad court members?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"She…might be even harder to beat?" Hallam guessed. "Anyway, we must hurry but be cautious. And by 'we' I mean you. This ballad is a tricky one."

"Not for me. I'm not the one who has to convince the Maid over and over that I'm going to not stab her in the heart this time but love her so that I can get her to drop her guard and stab her in the heart," Fayne said. "Seriously, how stupid does she have to be to keep falling for that? I mean, I'm not too certain of Nix's intellect to keep thinking he's human but at least there might be a spell there!"

"I'm going to give you another resurrection potion just in case but other than that there's nothing really you can do to prepare yourself for this journey," Hallam said. "I'm sure your dispellment is up to snuff so you won't have to kill everybody she's enchanted."

"So why not give me one than one?" Fayne asked loudly. "That way I could help a lot of dead people."

"Don't be greedy," Hallam admonished. "Usually this tale is completed without the aid of _any _but since you're a mortal and Sir Sagrell isn't even supposed to be here anyway and this is all spiraling wildly out of control I'll give you this. Not that you'll be able to use it on yourself since if you need it you'll be too dead to use it. And…I don't actually know if it would work on a mortal or the long-term effects of such use if it does work."

"So…don't you want to know about Father Etair?" Fayne asked. "You wanted to know earlier."

Hallam blinked. "Oh, right. Him. So did he know anything?"

"No idea. His idiot apprentice was possessed by crystals or something and killed him," Fayne explained.

"Ah, those would be prismere crystals," Hallam realized. "They are dark blue normally but when infused with magic become red. They're very powerful, very dangerous. Very rare, too, but clearly some were found. The Tuatha Deohn use them almost exclusively for their weapons and armor."

"Don't you care that Etair is dead?" Fayne asked.

"Of course I do! But he is mortal and I am long-lived and, while the manner of his death is tragic, I always expected him to die and I am used to my mortal friends and acquaintances passing on," Hallam explained.

"So how do I get to the Maid of Windemere's castle anyway?"

"One can always find what they desire if the desire is strong enough," Hallam replied cryptically.

"Yeah. Like when they desire it so much that they ask for directions," Fayne hinted.

Hallam sighed. "Go north."

* * *

Fayne was getting close when the Maid of Windemere appeared before her again. "You have come. Excellent. That is far wiser than the fools of the House of Ballad."

"So…not that I'm trying to reject a compliment or anything but…they were abducted and I willingly chose to walk into an obvious trap and I'm wiser than them?"

"Sadly, yes," the Maid of Windemere confirmed, nodding. "I know I invited you in and everything but I'm kind of changeable so I demand that you go through all manner of ridiculous tests so you can get to the point where I can defeat you. But only a true knight may come in and a true knight needs her armor."

Fayne looked down at the armor she was wearing. "And…what do you think I've got on? Because if the answer is 'not armor' then you're wrong."

"I demand special House of Ballads armor from my challenger!"

"See, on the one hand I'm annoyed that you're making these stupid demands but on the other…I'm a member of the House of Ballads! Why _don't _I have special House of Ballads armor?" Fayne demanded. "I want it."

The Maid of Windemere clapped her hands together. "Excellent." With that she disappeared.

"Well _now _what?" Fayne asked. She shrugged and kept going. Eventually, she found two fae just lounging around. They stood when they saw her. "Is that all you people do? Just sit around?"

"Hello, Sagrell," Airmer greeted her pleasantly. "I see our lady was right that Hallam the White would send his champion. Creth and I are competing for the right to be our lady's own champion. I'm obviously better suited for it but Creth wouldn't be Creth if he didn't fight me on it. Would you help us decide?"

"Would you let me of all people choose for you?" Fayne couldn't believe it.

"Well, no, whoever isn't picked would probably attack you but two on one is good odds for whichever one you're fighting with so you'd decide by default," Airmer explained. "Unless you're getting greedy and want to be both Hallam _and _my lady's champion."

Fayne laughed. "Yeah, not even. She's just being weird and wants me to have armor. And since you quit the House of Ballads or whatever, how about giving me yours?"

"The only way you're getting my armor is if you defeat me in a duel to the death," Airmer declared boldly.

Fayne considered. "Well, you're clearly not in your right mind. Your words would give that away even if the glowing light around your head didn't. But…since you insist…I'm going to kill you."

Creth just watched disinterestedly as she killed his friend and ended up probably beating him to death with his own fate and then took and put on his armor. She might have moved or asked him to turn around but he just seemed _extremely _not interested. It was kind of creepy just how apathetic he looked, actually.

Since he didn't appear interested in killing her, she just sort of left and continued on her journey. At one point, as she was crossing a bridge, the Maid of Windemere appeared before her once more.

"And yet another head you lay before me!" she exclaimed, delighted. "I approve."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "I'm not laying any heads before you by killing off your possessed-"

"Enchanted," the Maid interrupted. "You keep saying possessed and it's not the same thing at all. If they were possessed there would be some sort of entity controlling their body. They still control their bodies, I've just distorted their minds enough that they believe they want to follow me."

"Whatever," Fayne said indifferently. "Just because I'm killing off the people you are _enchanting _doesn't mean I'm doing it for you or it's even really about you at all. Stop being creepy."

"I created a cult of personality and regularly abduct a king to be my love slave," the Maid pointed out. "What about that screams 'not creepy' to you?"

"That's a good point," Fayne admitted.

"Your persistence rivals even Sir Elswin-"

"I'm sorry, who?" Fayne interrupted.

The Maid sighed. "He was the captain of my Windemere guard but Airmer and Creth killed him so that they could become my new champion. I mourn him in my own way."

"Could that _be _any more dismissive of him and his death?" Fayne demanded.

"Probably if I put some actual effort into it," the Maid replied. "He was enchanted too, you see. And he is going to stay nice and dead so that nobody can reach me."

"How are you going to manage that?" Fayne asked. "Fae don't come back because they're given permission…do they?"

"Well, no," the Maid conceded. "But I don't have to let him back into my tale."

"How does keeping him dead mean that you can't be reached anyway?" Fayne asked. "And why would you even want that if you want me to come to you?"

"With Sir Elswin dead you may have passed the Wall of Thorns but you'll never get past the Weeping Gorge!" the Maid declared triumphantly.

"…Did you seriously name the various geographical landmarks here?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "Why?"

The Maid narrowed her eyes, annoyed. "Did you seriously not even bother to do any research at all before you came here? How can you not know any of this?"

"I seriously did not even do any research, not even asking the librarian or Hallam some basic questions," Fayne confirmed.

"Why not?" the Maid asked petulantly.

"Because it all sounded really boring and I had places to be," Fayne replied. "I'm sure I'll figure it out."

"Well good luck with that. This bridge needs Sir Elswin defeated to cross and he's already dead so there," the Maid taunted.

"Setting aside what a lousy security system that is and how you must have knowingly picked someone inadequate if every time you want to come and go – except maybe you if you can teleport – someone needs to defeat Sir Elswin…No, actually, let me ruminate on that for a moment. If he needed to reach you does he need to go find someone else to kick his ass? This is so stupid," Fayne complained.

The Maid crossed her arms. "It's cool," she huffed.

"But setting all that aside, what's stopping me from just repelling down the side of this part and climbing up the other side?" Fayne asked pointedly.

The Maid frowned. "Technically nothing, I guess, if you're not interrupted by hostile fae and fall to your death but that sounds like a lot of effort. If Sir Elswin weren't dead this would be a lot easier for you."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "And _now _you care about making it easier for me!"

The Maid didn't answer but simply vanished leaving Fayne to search for the dead once-champion.

She found him and kneeled beside him. "This always makes me feel so skeevy. And I hate that I've done this more than once so I can say 'always'," she complained and she poured the liquid into his mouth.

He immediately came to and started thrashing around. "Where is-oh, damn. Dead again. Oh, well. Better luck next time."

Fayne pulled herself to her feet and after a moment Elswin did the same.

"Why, hello mortal," Sir Elswin said. "Were you the one who revived me? I'm much obliged."

Fayne winced. "Yeah, about that…"

Elswin narrowed his eyes. "I get the feeling that I'm not going to like this."

"Probably not," Fayne admitted, scratching the back of her head. "It's just…I've got to kill you again."

"There is no way in hell."

"I'm sorry but I need to get up there," Fayne pointed, "and it has been pointed out to me that killing you would be much easier than climbing up."

"And what about me and my needs?" Elswin demanded. "Do you have any idea what constantly being killed does to a person? Even my fellow fae are starting to talk and some of them commit suicide to escape an argument!"

"Well I'm very sorry about this," Fayne told him.

"Not sorry enough not to be lazy," Elswin complained before attacking her.

Fayne brightened. "Yes, self-defense once again!"

"You really need to readjust your definition of self-defense," Elswin managed to tell her before she killed him.

Since he was dead at that point, there was little point in answering so Fayne just returned to where she had been and crossed the bridge now that Elswin was dead again.

When she was crossing the bridge, the Maid appeared once more.

"Oh, come on!" Fayne complained. "Why can't you leave me alone? I'm coming as fast as I possibly can and you keep slowing me down."

"I'm just here to chat," the Maid said casually. "Also I think you might actually win so…want to be my king?"

"You mean queen?"

The maid shook her head. "No, I would be queen and you would be Wencen."

"Oh, wow," Fayne said, backing up. "You know I'm not even male or a fae? Honestly, you need to get over your weird obsession with him especially if you're just going to be obsessed with ending up with someone who is willing to pretend to be him."

"Pretend to be-" the Maid broke off, disgusted. "This from Sir Sagrell?"

"All I know is I'm never going to join you and please go away so I can make my way to you," Fayne requested.

The Maid vanished and Fayne continued forth. There were various fae creatures she attempted to avoid but none of them, strangely, seemed to notice her. Her eyes lit up when she saw a troll.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, charging right at it. "Now I can kill it and…wait, what? Why isn't it attacking me? I wonder if the Maid would have explained it if I hadn't chased her off."

Here she had a difficult decision to make. She could do what she wanted and kill the troll and be stronger for it or she could attack a creature minding its own business and lose her claim that she only killed in self-defense. Or she could just start lying about the whole self-defense thing. She tried poking the troll but it didn't do anything so she reluctantly gave up and went inside the first building she saw.

She saw a fae with purple skin inside.

"Hello," he greeted her amiably. "I am Sir Sagrell. The lady said you would come. She also said you were beautiful but I notice she has strange tastes."

Fayne considered getting offended but realized it would be a waste of time getting worked up whenever a fae said something unspeakably rude by mortal standards. He probably just meant that she didn't have purple or blue skin anyway. "Sir Sagrell? How are you back already? You've been dead for like a week."

"Fae can return quickly or after a long while," Sagrell explained. "It so happens that I have returned quickly only to be snapped up by the lady."

"Well, uh, this is awkward," Fayne admitted. "I just recently completed your ballad and became the new Sir Sagrell."

"Ah, of course!" Sagrell said, nodding. "I keep forgetting that I am no longer of the House of Ballads and you are Sagrell now."

"You can call me Fayne," Fayne said. "I'll call you Sagrell. You have more experience at it and I don't have anything else to call you."

"If you like," Sagrell said agreeably. "Though do keep in mind that Sagrell was never my original name."

"You keep calling her 'our lady'," Fayne noted. "And yet you don't have that enchantment glow around you and you don't sound like you're possessed."

"Well I am enslaved," Sagrell said. "I don't know, maybe it's the fact that now I'm a winter fae-"

"Wait a second," Fayne interrupted. "You just up and became a winter fae?"

"I didn't do it on purpose," Sagrell said. "But what did you think the purple skin was about?"

"I don't know. I've never met a winter fae before, I don't think. You're not evil, are you?" Fayne asked, feeling a bit silly for the question.

Sagrell actually rolled his eyes at her. "Being a winter fae doesn't make me evil or even a Tuatha. And ask them if they feel like they're evil. But now that I'm a winter fae, perhaps that leaves me less susceptible to the lady's wishes. I know how to stop her but I can't do it myself. You're not enchanted, though, so if you could go out and destroy all her crystals you'll be able to find a way into her castle. Of course, you'll need a way to make them appear and I can't help you there."

"Now _that_ I've got covered, actually," Fayne said, taking her whistle out of her backpack. "I'm glad that I don't have to kill you."

"I am, too, but remember that it's a bit soon to say you won't and I'm still sort of under her control," Sagrell said. "Oh, before you go I should probably tell you that the same enchantment she has cast on all of us has been cast on all the wild fae here to make them not attack."

Fayne snapped her fingers. "You know, I was actually wondering about that! But I kind of forgot to ask. Thanks for letting me know."

With that, she set out to find and destroy the crystals. She had to keep blowing on the whistle what seemed like every other minute but eventually she managed to destroy all of them. She did have to admit that this would probably have taken much longer if she had to fight the animals, too. Then when the last crystal was destroyed the fae suddenly did start attacking which was one way of measuring progress.

She passed Sagrell as he was on his way out. He told her he was free now that the crystals were destroyed, gave her a talisman, and told her to reveal the castle she had to go ring a bell. She was pleased that her predecessor was such a reasonable guy. And he even told her that he hoped her gods would protect her and didn't mention anything about them being hollow gods!

Too bad that he had to rush off immediately to go become a winter fae and she still had to kill her way through the House of Ballads. She was really starting to like these people.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

She had barely stepped foot in the castle before the Maid once more appeared before her.

"Oh, come on!" Fayne complained. "I'll get to you soon enough and you can be creepy all you want then but just stop interrupting me or I'll never get to you!"

"What, you don't want me to constantly pop up and distract you from your quest?" the Maiden asked, surprised.

"NO," Fayne said firmly.

"Well let me just tell you then that the fates of Airmer and Creth are on your head," the Maid accused.

"First off, I haven't seen Creth since he didn't care that I killed his best friend right in front of him and, secondly, the only reason that I had to kill Airmer in the first place was because you bewitched him so it's actually on _your _head," Fayne countered.

"What?" the Maid demanded. "He was supposed to be waiting to kill you for my favor!"

"Possibly he took a wrong turn somewhere," Fayne suggested. "Or perhaps I did."

"It's true that all this could rightly be called my fault," the Maid admitted. "But I don't care about the people you've killed."

"Since they're fae, I can't really blame you," Fayne admitted. "Though I suspect things might be a little different this time. I guess that's what resurrection potions are for?"

"They should be thanking me anyway. Actually, with the enchantment they _are _thanking me. I saved them from their fate to just keep playing out the same old tales for the rest of eternity," the Maid boasted.

"Yeah, you know that they could quit doing that whenever they felt like and have someone else take on the role, right?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "The villains appear to be the only ones who are actually the original villains."

"You should join me," the Maid said. "We can rule together! And I will love you for the rest of your days. Possibly mine, too, but you're going to die before me."

"I wouldn't count on it," Fayne said grimly. "And I'm not going to play your Wencen. Get over it."

Insulted, the Maid vanished and Fayne was allowed to proceed.

Sir Farrara was the first one waiting for her.

"Sagrell," he greeted. The enchanted ones who were out to kill her always seemed so pleased to see her. It was odd. "It's time for the two of us to fight."

"The last time the two of us fought we were fighting together against a thresh-"

"It was Bloody Bones not a bloody thresh!" Farrara interrupted. "That's your story."

"Don't even care," Fayne said. "So we were fighting the Bloody Bones together and you died and I didn't."

"Well I was fated to die, that's entirely different," Farrara protested. "Besides, I'm fine now."

"Except for the enchantment."

"Enchantment? What enchantment?" Farrara asked. "You have caused the Maid much grief which saddens me. When I kill you she will be pleased."

Fayne stared at him. "You…are just not at all good at reading the situation, are you? She isn't upset with me and I haven't caused her any grief yet. She keeps trying to seduce me, I think, and she'd really hate it if you killed me before she could try to talk me around yet again. And clearly she's cool with you and everyone else dying because she keeps putting you in my way, knowing I have no skill with dispellment, and she fully expects me to reach her."

"Lies!" Farrara cried out as he attacked.

Fayne sighed heavily after he was dead. Some rescue operation this was turning out to be.

She found the next two together though she hadn't seen them before and so didn't know who they were.

"Look here, Oleyn, it seems there's still some vermin to be exterminated," one of the fae said tauntingly.

Oleyn was something even though it was only a name and she didn't know anything else about her.

"Who are you?" Fayne asked blankly.

The fae scowled fiercely at her. "I am Queen Belmaid! Well, that is to say, I am Belmaid and the former queen."

Just in case Fayne had been entertaining any ideas about becoming Wencen, which she seriously wasn't, being stuck with someone as nasty as Belmaid would certainly change her mind. Perhaps it wasn't fair to decide that Belmaid was horrible after she only said two things but the other enchanted knights had all been quite pleasant and here Belmaid was being obnoxious. Perhaps she was always like that.

Either way, having no sort of emotional attachment at all to Belmaid or her friend Oleyn Fayne was able to kill them with literally regret at all.

Though that wasn't the story she would be telling Wencen.

When she eventually found him, she paused, confused at the lack of glowing green light around his head.

"Finally, you're here!" he exclaimed.

"Were you expecting me?" Fayne asked uncertainly.

"The Maid wouldn't shut up about it," Wencen said, grimacing.

Fayne raised her eyebrows. "Oh, are you not enchanted then?"

"No, she said she didn't want to force me and she wanted this to be about us and our love," Wencen explained. "I called her out on her hypocrisy given how many times she's kidnapped me and she left in a huff. I haven't seen her since."

"Not for nothing but…since you're not enchanted and don't appear to be under any sort of guard and since the wild fae here were completely tame until I destroyed her crystals why didn't you just leave?" Fayne asked.

Wencen blinked at her. "I…don't take your meaning."

"I'm saying I can't think of any reason for you to still be here. She's not even making a token effort to keep you restrained," Fayne pointed out.

"I…" Wencen trailed off, looking lost. "A good king does not abandon his subjects!"

"You didn't think of it, did you?" Fayne asked knowingly.

Wencen slumped. "It's never been my part in the telling to just run away!"

"And I guess it still isn't," Fayne said.

"Tell me, please," Wencen entreated. "Have you seen my subjects? What of my beautiful wife?"

Fayne started coughing uncontrollably.

Wencen narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "What?"

"Well the good news is that I found several of your people including your wife," Fayne said.

"And what's the bad news?" Wencen asked. "You killed them all?"

"Not _all _of them!" Fayne insisted. "I never ran into Creth again and the previous Sagrell wandered off to go be evil or something. I don't know, he's a winter fae."

"But you killed everyone else?" Wencen demanded. "Including my wife?"

"I only killed Airmer, Farrara, your wife, and someone named Oleyn," Fayne said defensively. "Oh, and the former champion of the Maid but I'm not sure he was on our side enough to count."

"Why would you kill them?" Wencen couldn't believe it. "You are terrible at rescuing."

"Hey, it's not my fault that I have no talent at dispelling," Fayne protested.

"Why didn't you come find me first? I could have saved all of them!" Wencen declared.

Fayne held up her hands. "Hey, there was nothing to be done about Airmer. She wouldn't stop nagging me until I dressed like this and I had to fight him for the outfit. And I might have run into Farrara before I could have run into you."

"You still could have saved my wife!"

"I'm not psychic!" Fayne shouted. "I didn't know that you weren't under mind control and that you could help!"

Wencen frowned. "Well I suppose what's done is done and at least she will come back to me in time."

"Yes…"

"The Maid is terrible. She is completely distorting the Telling. Who even knows what will happen? I appear to have no role in this tale," Wencen complained.

"No role except pretty much the same role you've always had since she still kidnapped you and is even giving you special treatment by not brainwashing you," Fayne pointed out.

"That may be true," Wencen admitted. "But did I mention that my wife and Oleyn are supposed to help free me?"

"Well…that's what I'm here for. So your part really isn't changing," Fayne said. "Do you know where the Maid is?"

"Despite what I just said about how all of this is so very different, I'm confident that she's in the same spot that we always end these little showdowns," Wencen said. "I'll show you."

"Well okay then."

"Let's just hope that the fact that I am not literally guaranteed victory doesn't mean I turn into a coward and run at the last second," Wencen said, worried.

Fayne kept a close eye on him as he led her to the Maid.

"Wait, stop, I can't do this," Wencen said, stopping suddenly.

"This better not be what it sounds like," Fayne growled.

"If what it sounds like is that I'm not going with you then yes, I'm afraid it does," Wencen said apologetically.

"Wencen, she killed your wife!"

"Actually, that was you," Wencen pointed out.

"Right and it was her fault that I had to do that," Fayne said. She paused. "I feel a little hypocritical about that whole 'personal responsibility' thing right about now but, to be fair, the fact she enchanted Belmaid was why I had to kill her in the first place. And…now I'm wondering all sorts of things that I really shouldn't be wondering about just how into the whole marriage thing you two get. But don't tell me! I don't want to know! Except I kind of do. But no!"

"I wasn't even going to tell you," Wencen assured her.

"Can you please explain to me why you've come all this way only to quit at the last second?" Fayne demanded.

"Well, really, I had no choice about being brought to the castle and it hasn't been that long of a walk since where you found me," Wencen pointed out. "Besides, you don't understand!"

"I definitely don't understand. Every time you've faced her, which is apparently a ridiculous amount of times, you kick her ass easily. Why's this time so different?"

"We've never engaged in fair combat before," Wencen admitted. "It's always her lowering her guard and me stabbing her in the heart. But with her fixation on you and her changing the telling I don't think that's likely to happen this time. I would not even know how to face her."

"What do you _mean _you wouldn't know how to face her?" Fayne asked, puzzled. "You just go and fight her. Throw magic at her. Hit her with a club. Slice her with a sword. I don't even care what you do, just do something violent."

"It's always been so easy before. I was never faced with the prospect of failure," Wencen continued, not really listening.

"And with me there you _really _won't be faced with the prospect of failure since I'm definitely going to kick her ass," Fayne boasted. "And what, you'd run away from the chance of failing and ensure you'd fail?"

"This way no one can know what would have happened had I faced her," Wencen explained.

"Except we do know since I'm going to win with or without you," Fayne said.

"Then why do you want me to face this with you so much?"

"Because you shouldn't be being a stupid coward and should just help me end this!" Fayne exclaimed. "Besides, you know that everyone is going to assume you were going to lose and that's why you left."

"I shall have to live with that," Wencen said. He took out a token and gave it to her. "This is the king's token. You're the only one worthy of it now."

"This doesn't even make any sense," Fayne said, rubbing at her forehead frustratedly. "Unless…did accepting this just make me Wencen? As in, the one that the Maid's been obsessed with all this time? I feel like this is an outcome she'd be angling for…Wencen, you bastard!"

"I believe in you!" He called over his shoulder as he sped away.

There was nothing to do but continue on and face the Maid and finally end this. The doorway had a strange white magical tint to it but it dissolved the moment she approached it so what was even the point of that?

"Hello, we meet again," the Maid said brightly. "In the flesh this time and everything."

"I'd be a lot more enthusiastic about our meeting, even if this time it's in the flesh, if it weren't for the fact that you kept harassing me on my way up here," Fayne told her.

The Maid shrugged. "I suppose that's fair. I notice Wencen isn't with you. Did you murder him despite my lack of enchanting him or did he run away like a coward?"

"The second one," Fayne said, sighing.

"How pathetic," the Maid sneered. "Looks like I'll be needing a new Wencen."

"Well don't you dare look here," Fayne said sharply.

"Aw, why not?" the Maid whined. "We have so much in common!"

"We do?" Fayne asked blankly. "We're both female and have come back to life and are judging Wencen so very hard for just up and ditching me but I think that's it."

The Maid laughed. "Oh, it's not just that, trust me! We both challenge the past and strive to rewrite the future."

"What does that even mean?" Fayne wondered. "You with your never-ending ballad are trying to rewrite the tales you keep having to play out and thus, in a way, rewrite the future. But how is that challenging the past? And my life doesn't have a script so there's nothing to rewrite."

"I'm changing fate with my prismere! You have no fate!"

"That's a rumor," Fayne said indignantly.

The Maid's jaw dropped. "You still haven't gotten that confirmed yet?"

"I'm a little busy thanks to you," Fayne said curtly.

"How would you like to rule at my side and be the new king and queen of the House of Ballads?" the Maid asked hopefully.

Fayne opened her mouth to respond then shut it again, thinking. "Would you be Queen Belmaid or Queen the Maid of Windemere? The Queen of Windemere?"

"Don't be absurd," the Maid scoffed. "I'd be Queen Magwyr."

"But I'd be stuck being King Wencen."

The Maid nodded. "Of course."

"Who is Magwyr anyway?"

"Me," the Maid said, looking affronted. "It's my name."

"Oh. Huh."

"So are we going to do this or what?" the Maid asked.

"I'd sooner stab myself in the eye," Fayne said.

"Well perhaps I can do it for you then!" the Maid declared as she attacked.

She blatantly cheated by summoning all sorts of help but Fayne kept at it and wore her down.

"Wait, please don't kill me!" the Maid begged at the last moment.

Fayne paused. "What are you doing? Don't you have any dignity?"

"When it come to being dignified and dying and not being dignified and maybe living then…no. No I don't. Why would I? Why would anybody?" the Maid asked sensibly.

"That…is a good point," Fayne was forced to concede. "But it is still damn annoying."

"I'm not a bad person, really," the Maid claimed.

"You keep abducting Wencen to use as a sex slave and have now started to enslave people," Fayne said flatly.

"Is it my fault it's my fate?"

"It might actually be, I'm not sure," Fayne said. "I don't really get how this works myself but it seems to me that if you were, say, a saintly sort of person you probably wouldn't get the fate where you had to be a villain and if you were some sort of ruthless killer it wouldn't be your fate to run an orphanage."

"Well it's been a very long time regardless. Don't I deserve to be free?"

Fayne crossed her arms. "How can you even ask me that with a straight face after enslaving all the members of the House of Ballads?"

"Hey, you did more harm to them than I did!" the Maid burst out. "I only enchanted them. You could have freed them but you chose to kill them."

"Except, no, I couldn't have freed them as I didn't have any dispel skill," Fayne said.

"And what, exactly, was stopping you from going to a Fateweaver and getting some dispellment before you came here and then changing it back afterwards?" the Maid asked rhetorically. "You knew you'd need it going in."

"I…" For once, Fayne was speechless.

"I thought so," the Maid said triumphantly, smirking. "Now, since all I wanted to do was earn my freedom and stop being a villain it would be immoral to kill me. And sure, I might have had to do some pretty questionable things to get to this point but it's hardly my fault I had to go so hard-core evil to break free of being a villain."

"I'm sorry, I just don't see it," Fayne said, shaking her head. "You're clearly enjoying being a villain. _Clearly_. And everything you did the first time was quite villainous and I don't see how you would have managed to redeem yourself by being thwarted and killed by the House of Ballads time and time and time again. It seems to have just made you more bitter and villainous."

"None of this is my fault!" the Maid protested. "I had to! Fate! After all this time, wouldn't you love it, too?"

"Stop using Fate as a crutch!" Fayne snapped. "If you had it your way, you'd enslave every member of the House of Ballads forever. That doesn't make you a good guy. Your Fate may be unpleasant but you're not much of a victim. And what was stopping you from retiring anyway?"

"What do you mean retire?" the Maid asked blankly.

"None of the people you're facing now are the original people. It's not even the same Wencen and you're just chasing after a name," Fayne pointed out. "If they can retire and give the title off to somebody else then why not you?"

"I…well…It's one thing to have people lining up to be heroes. Who would want to be the next Maid of Windemere?" the Maid asked plaintively.

"I don't know if you're aware of this, but the retiring person doesn't exactly hold the auditions themselves. Maybe no one would want to be the new Maid of Windemere but that would hardly be your problem," Fayne said. "And it's not like they could _force _you to keep playing the role if you didn't like it."

"Well now I just feel foolish," the Maid admitted.

"And you're pretty obviously still evil. I can't trust you not to be evil and come back and do this all again and now you've got Prismere. And you'll just keep coming back to life more bitter and trapped by your own mentality far more than Fate than ever before. You can't stand to see them win. It really does suck for you but killing you is clearly the moral option here, or at least as moral as killing people ever is. You can't just say that sparing you is the moral choice because sparing people in general is the moral choice. Should I just not kill any bad guys ever and let them keep terrorizing people so I could cling to a simplistic concept of moral superiority?" Fayne asked rhetorically before delivering the killing blow.

It was strangely still once the Maid was dead. She could hear birds chirping which was odd given that she was surrounded by so much death. There was nothing for it but to go back to the House of Ballads then.

* * *

She supposed that she did manage to do some good despite being forced to kill every member of the House of Ballads she came across except for Creth and that coward Wencen because when she returned she found the place was once more populated by the Summer fae.

As she walked by, many of them felt the need to inform her that she had saved them as if she didn't know. Well, actually she kind of didn't know. How had she managed to save them? Killing the Maid, sure, but where had they been and what had they been doing? Did killing the Maid mean that the spell on everyone had broken? Maybe she should have just run away all of the members of the Court of Enchantments that she had met and so not killed them. She still would have had to face Airmer but surely she could have just beaten him unconscious and taken his armor. She did feel a lot more mystical wearing it. Slightly pretentious, too, but she could live with it.

She hurried over to Hallam as he was the one most likely to know what was going on.

"You have returned victorious," Hallam said, pleased.

"I have returned."

"I…did just say that, yes," Hallam said, eyeing her a little strangely. "I know that you had a chance to change the telling and make the Maid the ruler of the House of Ballads and yet you did not."

"I can honestly claim that I was not even slightly tempted," Fayne told him. "And why would I have come here and sought to be a part of all of this if I just wanted to change everything?"

"You would have to ask our brethren of the House of Valor that," Hallam said wryly. "Still, though you sought to keep everything the same there have been changes. It was not your fault as the Maid had twisted everything almost beyond recognition already and Wencen chose to flee before even facing her. You did the best you could and kept us mostly on track and for that I thank you."

"What now?" Fayne asked. "Are you going to keep redoing the original tales or work these new events into the telling?"

"I do not know," Hallam admitted. "The old telling have served us for so long but now we have new adventures. I do not wish to forget the worthy deeds you have just done or to cast aside the worthy deeds performed by heroes of long ago. Perhaps we shall do both and have the original ballads and new ballads where the original ballads all go horribly wrong and a hero must step up to fix them. It is just a little complicated as you were Sagrell and being Wencen must be a far less attractive proposition these days."

"Poor Wencen," Fayne said sympathetically.

"You feel pity for Wencen?" Hallam asked sharply. "It is, perhaps, regrettable that his courage failed him but it is one thing to go into battle time and time ago with victory assured. It may be difficult but it is nothing compared to the uncertainty that he rejected. He deserves whatever scorn shall be heaped on him in the future."

"Perhaps this individual Wencen does," Fayne agreed. "But what about the Wencens of days past? I know it's kind of a difficult subject to talk about with all the cognitive dissonance but does the original Wencen who did all of these brave things and never once fled from the Maid or anything else because maybe he might possibly lose deserve to be remembered as a coward who fled at the first sign of real adversity? What about the half a dozen Wencens who did their part before him? They were never faced with the adversity that the first Wencen or current Wencen had to deal with and so they might have all fled, too, but we don't know that for sure. It just seems so unfair to take a great hero and then sully his legacy because a representative of his couldn't live up to the name."

Hallam bowed his head. "Your point is well-taken, Sagrell, but it is how it must be. Wencen is Wencen and that is how the House of Ballads operates. If the original Wencen deserved more than it is on the current Wencen for failing to deliver it."

Fayne sighed. "I suppose. But even if the original Wencen has really relinquished all ties to his own name and deeds – if he's even still around – I'm mortal and it doesn't sit right with me."

"Since Wencen failed and you succeeded in killing the Maid, I hope you realize what this means," Hallam told her. "Aside from the fact that we're going to have to be holding a lot of auditions and the Maid is possibly a little more permanently dead than usual."

Fayne cleared her throat awkwardly. "Ah, no, I don't realize what that means."

"You're the new king of the House of Ballads," Hallam said grandly.

"King huh?" Fayne repeated, sighing. "Oh, why not? I'm assuming with Wencen's name tarnished I'm not him and I can't imagine you'd start referring to me by my actual name."

"You are correct. Sir Sagrell has become King Sagrell," Hallam informed her. "Congratulations, my liege."

Fayne laughed. "How about that, huh? And I only came to tell you that a member of this house had been attacked. Listen, I've only been here a short time and so don't really know what you guys do when in between tellings but I've kind of got things to do. Is it a problem if I go out and have outside adventures?"

Hallam shook his head. "Of course not. And if the adventures are worthy enough, we might even add them to our telling seeing as how they were performed by our King Sagrell."

"Much cooler than killing a thresh for a ring or whatever," Fayne said approvingly. "Well, Hallam, it's been fun. Let me know if you need me for any reenactments!"

* * *

Now that she had gone off and become the king of a fae house, Fayne thought maybe she should stop putting off going to see Arden and finding out what was going on with her fate or lack thereof. The weird purple killing thing that had been suggested to her to be beating someone to death with their own fate and possibly killing them for good also bore looking into. She wasn't even sure why she kept doing that to people, particularly the people she hadn't wanted to kill from the House of Ballads. It was just instinctive, she supposed.

When she arrived back at the hut, she found an alfar woman kneeling over a bloody corpse.

"What did you do?" Fayne demanded, horrified.

"I know that this must look really bad but I swear I didn't actually do it," the woman claimed defensively.

Fayne blinked. "Is that how it looks whenever I find myself standing over the bodies of bodies I didn't put there? I do not seem at all convincing in that case."

The woman perked up and stood. "Oh, this sort of thing happens to you all the time as well? That's good, you should be a little more understanding then."

"Mostly I'm wondering what it says about the two of us that this is a persistent problem and wondering if I should maybe make an effort to change something about myself so I can cut down on all of this," Fayne admitted.

"I don't see how it's _our _fault seeing as how we arrive when the bodies are already there," the woman said.

"Who are you?" Fayne asked. "Why are you here?"

"I'm pretty much your best friend so I'm assuming you have amnesia, possibly relating to the fact that you must have come back from the dead," the woman said thoughtfully. "My name is Alyn Shir."

"You knew who I was before?" Fayne asked hopefully. "Who was I? How did I die? What's my real name?"

Alyn laughed. "Ah, such questions! I could tell you everything right now, I suppose, but then what reason would you have for investigating further and eventually killing a god?"

Fayne paled. "Wait, what? Killing a god…that doesn't sound like something I want to do."

"And that's exactly why I can't tell you more," Alyn said apologetically.

"At least tell me my name!" Fayne pleaded.

"Why? What are you going by now?" Alyn asked curiously.

"Fayne."

"Fayne," Alyn repeated. "I like it."

"Oh come on!"

"Sorry, no can do," Alyn said in a sing-song voice. "Maybe later if I'm in a good mood. But if you're used to going by Fayne finding out your real name could just be incredibly confusing."

"For my supposed best friend, I don't think I like you very much," Fayne said, narrowing her eyes.

Alyn sighed and shook her head. "I've heard that before."

"Why are you even here? Do you know who killed Arden?" Fayne asked.

"Arden? Is that the Fateweaver? Well, yes, I do know who killed him. I was following some Tuatha and they did it."

"Why didn't you stop them if you were following them?" Fayne asked. "Did they literally manage to kill him in the thirty seconds or so that it took you to arrive here behind them?"

Alyn shook her head. "Oh, no, I absolutely could have stopped it. But frankly this Fateweaver's life wasn't worth not finding out why they were here. I was hoping to find some information from his corpse but now I can clearly see they wanted you since you came back from the dead and whatnot."

"That doesn't even make any sense!" Fayne complained. "I could see not wanting to kill the Tuatha so you could question them but evidently you just let them leave and didn't even bother following after them. And what makes you think something on Arden's corpse would explain it better than Arden could? And if it turns out they just wanted to find me, which would be stupid as they didn't stick around waiting for me to show up, you saving him wouldn't have changed the fact that I was going to show up here. But now I can't get what I was showing up here to get anyway so you just let the Tuatha win. Way to go, Alyn."

"I can see where I'm not wanted," Alyn sniffed. "Do try to be less critical, dear. It'll do wonders for your blood pressure." With that, she threw down some strange powder and when the smoke cleared she was gone.

Right after she had left, Agarth burst in. "What happened here?"

"I didn't do it!" Fayne swore. "In fact, when I came in here I found someone completely different kneeling over his corpse and, for what it's worth, she claimed that she also didn't do it. I'm not sure if I believe her, though. She did say that she could have stopped it but something stupid about wanting to know why the Tuatha who killed him killed him and that could only be accomplished by letting the victim die and the murderers wander off to go be evil."

"If there was another woman, I sure didn't see her."

Fayne narrowed her eyes. "What are you saying? You don't believe me? You think I made this Alyn Shir up? She used magic to slip away right before you got here."

"I'm not saying I disbelieve you. It's just a little…odd," Agarth said delicately. "And you are using her existence to make me think you didn't kill poor Arden here. And even if everything happened like you said, I sent you after Arden two months ago! What took you so long to get here! He's clearly freshly dead. You took so long and I never heard from you I finally resolved to come check it out for myself."

Fayne winced. "Yeah, about that…I know you said it was important I come here and see if I'm truly without Fate. I did, in fact, walk right by here and briefly saw Arden fully alive but I had to go visit the House of Ballads to deliver a message in the unlikely event the fae would declare war on the village of Gorhart if I didn't and then things spiraled out of control and I became the king of the House of Ballads."

"King?"

"It's kind of a long story," Fayne said tightly.

"Well I'm sure that was all very interesting," Agarth told her. "But why not just stop by and ask Arden about the fateless thing when you were walking by?"

Fayne shrugged. "I wasn't up for dealing with that right then. Besides, I figured that simple request would spiral out into a lot of other requests if I'm actually fateless and then I'd never have time to go to the House of Ballads. It was worth the delay, I think."

"Arden might not have been killed if you had just gone straight there like you were supposed to!" Agarth burst out.

Fayne crossed her arms, unimpressed. "I had no way of knowing he would die and you don't know that they wouldn't have killed him to find out what I wanted here or something. Besides, that's what you get for bossing me around and then leaving. I got an invitation to go join the Warsworn, too, just so you know."

Agarth's eyes widened. "Oh, don't you dare! We have to get to Dellach."

"What?" Fayne asked quizzically.

"Dellach," Agarth repeated. "It's a sacred site for Fateweavers. I was hoping to avoid it at all costs and get Arden to tell you but he's dead and it might be related to this or at least to your refusal to come in a reasonable timeframe. Still, I'm not getting vibes you're learning anything from your ridiculous delay so I don't want to get others killed and I guess I'll just have to take you even though I really, really don't want to go there."

"Is there anything particular about sacred sites that make you want to avoid them?" Fayne wondered. "Do they insist you be sober when you visit them or something?"

Agarth shook his head. "No, it's not that, it's just…You know what, I'm not nearly drunk enough to talk about this. You'll see."

"Well are we going to go right now or…?" Fayne asked.

"You head over there. I'm going to bury this body and then meet you there," Agarth said.

"Are you sure? Because I could totally wait for you," Fayne offered.

"No, no, just go."

"I'll probably get distracted if you're not right there travelling with me," Fayne warned.

"Hopefully the head start will give you enough time to do other things and not keep me waiting too long," Agarth said. "Besides, I can fast travel there and I don't think you've ever been there so you can't."

"Fast travel?" Fayne repeated.

"Not that it's actually faster since it takes the same amount of time to get there but I don't have to manually walk there and can just teleport at the same rate that I would walk it which is certainly more convenient for me," Agarth mused. "And less likely to be set upon by enemies and side quests."

"Isn't that wasting minutes or hours of your life, though?" Fayne asked.

"Well, actually I don't know if you age while you're teleporting and can you honestly tell me that such a tedious walk _isn't _wasting minutes or hours of your life?"

"Well…no," Fayne admitted. "I should probably look into this fast travel thing."

"You do that. You know, this is the second time I've had to bury bodies you've left behind," Agarth grumbled.

"I didn't kill him!" Fayne protested. "And unless you're talking about burying Tuatha, the bodies over at the Well weren't my fault either!"

"Weren't you just on about personal responsibility?" Agarth asked her. "Or have you gotten over that in the two months since I last saw you?"

"I didn't kill any of them. I had nothing to do with being brought back to life and from what I can tell the Tuatha are after me because I came back to life, not anything specific about me. I didn't kill this man, either, and had no way of knowing that he would be in danger because of vague plans I had to come see him. If anything, you sent me to him. There's a difference between accepting personal responsibility for the things that you do and indiscriminately accepting responsibility for everything bad that happens that you hear about."

"See, now I feel like you're changing the rules and making things more complicated and this is why I want nothing to do with your personal responsibility nonsense," Agarth told her. "Now hurry up and go and try not to make me wait another two months before getting to Dellarch. Or, you know, do. In fact, never show up. No, wait, that's not right. Hurry up and go there."

"Okay…" Fayne said, beginning to wonder what was even up with him.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Fayne was just walking by when a smiling man stepped in her path. "Seriously? Can I just not go anywhere in peace?"

"Hello," he said. "My name is Oleander Sinclair. Are you one of the inhab…inhib…do you live around here?"

"No, I'm not one of the _inhabitants_ of the town," Fayne replied.

"Ah, well that's okay. Surely you'd still be interested in purchasing one of these res…respl…risp…"

"I think the word you're looking for is 'resplendent'," Fayne said helpfully. "Look, I try not to judge when people have terrible vocabularies like you clearly do but maybe you shouldn't try to use big words if you can't pronounce them right."

Oleander drew himself up offended. "Of course I can pronounce them right!"

"In the last two minutes you've failed epically at both 'inhabitants' and 'resplendent'," Fayne pointed out. "And I'll give you resplendent. In the past I know I've had some difficulty deciding if the a in 'patronize' should be long or short. I think people might say it both ways, actually. But 'inhabitants' is an easy one."

Oleander continued looking defiant for a moment before breaking down. "Oh, alright! I should have known I couldn't fool you."

"Me in particular or just some random passer-by?" Fayne asked. "Because I don't think we really know each other. But, all things considered, I could be mistaken."

Oleander shook his head. "No, I don't think we've met either. But, considering my circumstances, I might also be mistaken."

"This is kind of eerie then," Fayne said shuddering. "Maybe we knew each other really well and not just have no idea. We will literally never know unless we did know each other and some third party who has no memory issues can confirm it. But if we didn't know each other we'll never be able to disprove our knowing each other."

"My mind is blown," Oleander breathed. "In the spirit of kind of maybe possibly knowing each other, can you do me a favor?"

"What kind of favor?" Fayne asked.

"I'm actually not Oleander Sinclair," Oleander admitted.

"Okay…so you're going under an assumed name. I don't see why this matters," Fayne said.

"The real Oleander Sinclair was pretty much the most brilliant potions brewer ever and a wonderful salesman to boot," Oleander said.

"In your completely unbiased opinion. I can't believe you stole a guy's name. Was, though? Is he dead?" Fayne asked shrewdly.

Oleander squirmed uncomfortably. "Well…yes. It's not my fault, though! I just found him that way. And knew who he was somehow. And decided to drink this mysterious potion I found on him instead of selling it. And drinking that potion, far from killing me, might have actually made me brilliant at alchemy. And brilliant in general. But now it's wearing off and I've gotten so used to using these half-remembered words that I keep trying to say them but can never even say them right."

"Well that does sound like quite the pickle," Fayne replied. "Why take his name? I mean, I can see the appeal of wanting to be a brilliant alchemist even if you're a total moron for drinking a random potion you found but surely you don't need his name to be good at alchemy."

"Well…no," Oleander admitted. "But I don't remember my own name because I'm a liar."

"What do those two things have to do with each other?" Fayne wondered. "Were you cursed because you were a liar into forgetting your own name? Even if you've used a false name for years and years I don't see why you'd literally forget your own name."

"I…that is a good question, actually," Oleander said, embarrassed. "I don't know. I just don't know. All I know is that I need this potion again. Last time I didn't know it would wear off but if you can get the potion I'll make sure I have more for when I need it."

"Ah, so that's what you need from me," Fayne said. "How am I supposed to get the potion?"

"Well I'm sure the Warsworn have some in their keep but they'd never let me in because I'm a liar," Oleander told her. "You could always just give me the two reagents that I need and I'd make the potion myself but that sounds like work."

"It would be far less work for me than going to go rob the Warsworn!" Fayne exclaimed. "Besides, I seek to join them one day but not right now so I don't even want to go there and risk causing problems. What reagents did you need?"

Oleander told her and she promptly produced them.

"You know, I'm not sure you deserve to go around artificially being a brilliant alchemist and stealing a dead guy's name and talent but this is making me feel a little better about having to kill a bunch of people because I was sick of not being able to pick a flower like a normal person," Fayne said.

"I…don't know what those two things have in common," Oleander admitted.

"And you don't need to," Fayne assured him. "All that matters is that you can make your stupid potion."

"Ah, well I can't actually make it," Oleander said apologetically. "I sort of forgot how."

Fayne looked like she wanted to kill him. "Fine. I'll be back shortly."

She hurried to the next town and created a minor alchemist's potion.

She nearly tripped on a woman bending over picking flowers. "Ah, I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there."

"No, it's quite alright," the woman said, smiling. Somehow she managed to look depressing even smiling. "My name is Gizela Wulflac."

"I'm sorry again," Fayne said. "Now I must be going-"

"It's just so hard, you know," Gizela interrupted, sighing tragically. "My poor Camden."

"That's great," Fayne said, attempting to back away.

"He's my husband, you know," Gizela told her. "We got married and then the very next day he went away and never came back."

Fayne winced. "Ouch. Well, these things happen sometimes I guess. Are you sure it was a real legal wedding and not just an excuse to, you know?"

Gizela reddened. "Of course I'm sure! My husband didn't just run off on me! He went off to war."

"And you're _sure _about this?" Fayne asked delicately.

"Yes!"

"And it had nothing to do with escaping you?"

Gizela narrowed her eyes. "Nothing at all! I knew he was going to war one day long before our wedding ceremony. That's not the problem. The issue is that I haven't heard anything from him since he left three years ago."

"He's probably dead then," Fayne said bluntly.

"Everyone always says that!" Gizela clenched her fists. "He's not dead. He's not, he's not, he's not!"

"Okay then," Fayne said, backing away a little further. "Didn't mean to upset you."

"It's just…the alfar army won't tell me anything. They never tell anybody anything," Gizela complained.

Fayne raised her eyebrows. "They won't even tell you if your husband is alive or dead?"

"They supposedly have people out delivering death notices but nobody ever wants to and the roads are dangerous so these things can take awhile and they ignored me when I wrote to them personally," Gizela explained. "Do you think you could go out and personally find him, stranger?"

Fayne stared at her. "You don't even know my name and you want me to somehow find your possibly-dead husband of one day out there somewhere in the world?"

Gizela nodded. "It might help if you went to the front. Or maybe Didenhil since it's where he volunteered."

"There is no way I'm going to actually expend any effort at all on this but if I literally happen across someone who answers to the name Camden Wulflac then I'll send him your way or at least make him write," Fayne offered.

"Well…as long as I'm not willing to go find him myself I suppose that's good enough," Gizela admitted, sounding somewhat disappointed.

"Why aren't you willing to go do that, by the way?" Fayne asked.

Gizela blinked at her. "Well I can't really defend myself on the open roads and I don't really have the money for that sort of world-wide expedition and if I go off and he comes here we'd just miss each other entirely."

"As far as excuses not to do things go, I've heard worse," Fayne said.

"It's not an _excuse_," Gizela said indignantly. "Oh, but I do hope you find him! After all these years how I will appear to him!"

She sounded really concerned but she still appeared to be quite young so Fayne asked, "How long ago did he leave?"

"Three years ago," came the prompt response.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Three years ago I'm willing to bet you looked pretty much exactly the way you look now. And he might have gotten all disfigured in the war or something anyway."

"I wouldn't care if he did," Gizela said boldly. "I would love Camden no matter what."

"Yeah, that's really great, but I've got to go before that guy ends up moving from where I left him," Fayne said. With that, she hurried back to Oleander.

Oleander didn't appear to recognize her. "Hey, don't look at me like that! I didn't do whatever it is that you think I did. Well…probably."

"Probably because you don't know what I'm looking at you for?" Fayne asked.

"That and the fact I honestly don't remember what I've been doing lately," Oleander said.

"I have to wonder if this lack of memory is a bad side effect of the potion wearing off or you really are just too stupid to remember your own name," Fayne said. "I'd say the former because otherwise how could you still be alive but being stupid doesn't mean you can't still kill people and take their stuff."

"Potion? What potion?" Oleander asked curiously.

Fayne sighed and rolled her eyes. "Here, just drink this."

Oleander shrugged, took the potion, and did just that. "Wow, that's amazing! I suddenly feel as though I'm an erudite man again, as though the haze from the contemptible oaf is lifting and the path before me is resplendent."

Fayne just stared at him. "There's no way this potion should be legal."

"We did agree that I would pay you for your troubles, did we not?" Oleander asked her rhetorically.

Actually they hadn't but they really should have and so Fayne sensibly kept her mouth shut, took the money, and left.

* * *

She had just stepped foot into the village of Canneroc when something quite surprising happened. Some giant spiders just popped up from the ground or something and started attacking her. She hated dealing with giant spiders in general because of the annoying screeching sound they made, their venom, and their habit of putting her into a cocoon but normally at least she didn't have to deal with them when in civilized centers because normally such places had more sense than to build where animals would attack. Or maybe the animals had more sense than to attack towns outright instead of stragglers.

There was no one else in sight while she was fighting but once the battle was over and the spiders dead, a man hurried up to her.

"Thank the gods you're here!" he exclaimed.

"Why didn't you help me with that?" Fayne demanded, annoyed.

The man shrugged. "You looked like you had it under control."

"What does that have to do with it? You still could have helped me so I didn't have to kill them all by myself," Fayne said, crossing her arms in displeasure.

"I'm sorry," the man apologized. "My name is Garaner Vernt and I'm in charge around here. I just got so excited to see you and since I figured you must be the aid we've been requesting from pretty much everywhere. Oh, I was so worried that our messages weren't getting through! Tell me, where are you from and how many warriors do you have that for some reason you did not see fit to bring with you when you came here?"

Fayne wasn't sure what to say to that. "I…"

"I take it you aren't the aid we sent for then," Garaner realized. "I suppose our messengers were probably eaten by spiders then. That's unfortunate. Still, we're not ungrateful for your aid and you seem to be quite equipped to take care of yourself."

"This village isn't _normally _infested by giant spiders, is it?" Fayne asked.

Garaner chuckled. "No, not at all! Well, we're right at the edge of Webwood and we're mostly a bunch of silk farmers so you see we would never want spiders to completely disappear from our lives – well, maybe some of us now – but lately the summer fae's protection has faded and they've all come to attack."

"That doesn't sound good," Fayne said worriedly. "An entire town attacked by spiders. I don't do this very often but this is pretty major. Is there anything that I can do to help?"

Garaner's face lit up. "I am so glad that you asked! How would you like to go looking for our chief defender Barten and his party? They went to investigate the attacks the other day and never came back. Of course, I'm convinced that they're probably all dead but we have to be _sure _don't we?"

"That is sensible," Fayne agreed. "And hopefully they're not dead and can come back here to protect the village."

"Yes, quite," Garaner drawled. "Listen, I have some more information to give you so go meet me on the bridge and I'll tell it to you."

Fayne blinked. "Is there any particular reason you can't just tell me what it is right now? While we're talking?"

"Yes, there is," Garaner said but rather than sharing his reason he just walked away.

Since he was being ridiculous, Fayne decided to go explore some of the buildings before going to speak to him again. If he didn't want to wait he shouldn't have made her have two separate conversations with him.

"Oh, thank goodness someone from the outside finally made it in!" a woman cried out.

"While…that is true," Fayne said slowly, "how can you seriously know everybody that lives here? Do you have any idea how creepy that is?"

"I don't think it is, no," the woman said. "It's a small town."

"If it's a town large enough to sustain its population it should be big enough that you don't know who everyone is," Fayne replied. "Who are you?"

"My name is Syllareta Vauner and I am the town's healer," Syllareta introduced. "Since you managed to fight your way here through all the spiders I feel like you will be able to handle my request and I only hope that you actually will do so."

"What request?" Fayne asked.

"Normally I have anti-venom on hand for any silk farmers that get bitten but with all the attacks I'm afraid I've quite run out. I have most of the ingredients but with our exposure to the venom we have become more sensitive to it so I'll still need fifteen poison glands from the spiders," Syllareta explained.

Fayne drew back, uncertain.

"What?"

"I'm sorry, it's just…I'm not expert but how does it make any sense that repeated exposure to a poison would make you more susceptible?" Fayne asked. "If it doesn't kill you shouldn't you build up a resistance and be less sensitive to it?"

"That…does make a certain amount of logical sense," Syllareta agreed. "But you tell me why it is that natives get more sick than travelers who get poisoned?"

"That I cannot do," Fayne said. "I can, however, bring you the glands since I'm going to be heading out there anyway looking for Barten and crew. Oh, wow, this is going to be so _messy_."

That settled, she returned to Garaner.

"Now that we are safely away from prying ears we can talk," he said, his voice low.

"Yeah, there wasn't actually anybody twenty feet away where we were originally standing, either," Fayne pointed out. "You must read too many spy novels."

"Look, I'm just going to level with you. Barten is usually in charge even though all he wants to do is chase shadows and superstitions instead of harvesting riches," Garaner said disgustedly. "Thinks are much better for everyone with me in charge. Really. But Barten is kind of a badass and there's no way he's actually dead although the rest of his party probably is. I need you to go out and make sure he stays dead so I can stay in charge."

Fayne couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You want me to go out and kill somebody who seems to be the best protector this town has so you can stay in charge?"

"I never said that!" Garaner said loudly, looking around wildly. "I said please find Barten, gods willing he still lives!"

"Yeah but two seconds ago you just said the exact opposite and this whole pretending not to know what I'm talking about before I can ask some clarifying questions is no way to get me to agree," Fayne warned.

"But I really _do _have no idea what you're talking about," Garaner said innocently.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Fine. I assume you can still concede that should Barten miraculously return you'll be out of a job? But if you're such a better leader than him then why would his return cause this?"

Garaner gave a long-suffering sigh. "It turns out that the people of Canneroc _like _superstition and shadow-chasing."

"What kind of superstition and shadow-chasing is he doing?" Fayne inquired.

"He wants to do things like 'find out why the spiders are attacking us in our homes' and 'stop them from wiping all of us out' and not focusing on making a profit," Garaner explained.

"As I live and breathe, an actual straw man," Fayne said, somewhat awed. "Is there any point in asking how you expect to make a profit if no one can come trade with you or deliver the silk anywhere due to the spider attacks? And no one can even harvest any silk for the same reason? And there's a good chance you're all going to be killed by spiders?"

"Oh, nonsense," Garaner scoffed. "We'll be fine. After all, that's what all of our greatest hunters are for!"

"Your greatest hunters who all went off to get themselves killed with Barten?" Fayne asked pointedly.

"Well that just goes to show that his plan is equally stupid," Garaner said. "Or even more so! At least I didn't get them all killed."

"I'm…just going to go find Barten," Fayne said.

"Don't you dare bring him back," Garaner said quietly even as he smiled brightly at her. "Good luck!"

"Wow he is _terrible _at subtlety," Fayne marveled as she set off.

* * *

Deep in a cave, she found a heavily armed man casually poking at three giant spiders with a lance.

"I take it you're Barten?" she asked as she set the spiders on fire.

"Yes, I am," Barten confirmed as he quickly moved back. "Could you maybe have given me a little warning before setting the people I was attacking on fire?"

"Well, you were standing pretty far away," Fayne said. "But sorry, I'm not really used to fighting with other people since for the most part I wander the world alone."

"I've been wandering these _caves _along for the past two days," Barten told her. "It's been impossible to get out. My men have all been killed and I don't even want to know where the bodies have disappeared to."

Fayne wrinkled her nose. "Probably for the best. Listen, Garaner has betrayed you."

"That little shit!" Barten exclaimed immediately. "This whole stupid suicidal mission to go kill all the spiders in their cave and completely ignore why they were attacking us in the first place was all his idea! Like just killing all the spiders would work! Or, if it did, like it wouldn't put the whole town out of business. And now he tries to have me killed?"

"That's quite a leap," Fayne said. "Going from 'he's betrayed me' to 'he's tried to have me killed.'"

"What else could you have meant?" Barten asked reasonably. "How could he have possibly have betrayed me if it wasn't by trying to have me killed, either by sending you to kill me or just really hoping the spiders would kill me."

"That's a fair point," Fayne agreed. "And it was both, actually. He's also taken up leadership in your absence and wants to keep it. But why are you so quick to believe me? We've never met and I did just tell you I was sent to kill you."

"You haven't tried to kill me and that's definitely a good sign," Barten said. "I mean, I'm good and I've survived these caves when no one else did but you managed to cut a bloody swath through the cave to reach me. I don't think you'd need to catch me unawares and stab me from behind. And Garaner is just the kind of person who _would _want to have me killed so he can control the village, the actual good of the village be damned. No one wants him in charge but he's probably the second-best qualified after me. I'm not sure I'm the best leader and I certainly don't want the position but he is really, really inadequate. He seems to want to just ignore the problem. If spiders could bribe people, I'd suspect him of being in their pocket."

"That's pretty serious," Fayne said. "If he's obviously that bad, why would you even go on the mission in the first place?"

"Well we had to do _something_, didn't we?" Barten asked rhetorically. "I had a different idea but I knew I could never be the one to do it."

Fayne closed her eyes. "I have a bad feeling about where this is going…"

"It's not going anywhere until we're safely back in Canneroc," Barten promised. "But something you should probably know is that fighting these spiders and studying their movements over the past few days, I've realized that they've started to plan and strategize. It's how they killed my men. I refuse to believe that a bunch of spiders are smarter than me so I suspect there is an evil at work controlling them. Speak with me after we reach Canneroc. Speak with me, please!"

With that, he ran off.

"Why does everyone always keep doing that?" Fayne wondered vaguely before setting off after him.

She arrived back in Canneroc moments after he did.

"Hello," he greeted her. "For your part in saving me, I'm giving you this key to Gossamer's End. It's quite a lovely house though you may need to clean it up a bit since it hasn't been in use in some time. The blacksmith will not be willing to repair all of your things though, of course, you'll still have to pay him. And I've banished Garaner from the town so he'll probably be eaten by spiders."

"Wow," Fayne said, blinking. "I kind of can't believe just how much you've gotten done in the two minutes you've been back here. You are kind of amazing."

Barten shrugged modestly. "I only do the best that I can."

"Giving me a house? That's so incredibly generous, even if you weren't doing anything in particular with it! Thank you! This is so wonderful that I'm not even going to ask why you feel that the blacksmith wouldn't have agreed to take my money to repair things if you hadn't told him to."

"I'm glad you're not going to," Barten told her. "I do hope that now you'll be willing to go up to Castle Yolvan and see what's going on."

"Why do you think going there will help?" Fayne asked.

"The fae who lived up there were the ones who cast the first enchantment that allowed us to be able to build Canneroc in the first place and not all be devoured by spiders," Barten exposited. "I figure that we have three possibilities. The most hopeful possibility is that the enchantment just wore off and we need them to relay it or at the very least to teach us how to do it. It's possible that they are angry at us or stopped caring and may have even moved. And the most worrying possibility, of course, is that they've all been killed. Perhaps the Tuatha did it and perhaps the Widow. All I know is that we're never going to be able to stop the spiders unless we understand why they are attacking. And I can't go, of course, because I'm the leader of the town and so not only is me getting myself killed a bad plan but in my absence we may get another Garaner looking to take over."

"Well, I've already come this far," Fayne reasoned. "Fine, I'll go see what's going on up there."

Before she left, she made sure to give that healer the poison sacs so she wouldn't have to keep carrying them around with her and gave the blacksmith a truly obscene amount of money to make her house as nice and big as he could. There wasn't much of a chance it would see a good deal of use but it was a house and the only one she had.

She didn't know who she was, only that she had once died, and her supposed best friend refused to even tell her her name. But now she had a house. She did have some place to call her own and something told her that she was going to end up defending this place with her life.

How very inconvenient.

"Excuse me," a woman called out as she walked away from the blacksmith and apparent house upgrader. "Can I have a moment of your time? I heard that you're not afraid to pass through Webwood."

"Afraid is definitely not the right word for it," Fayne agreed. "Perhaps something like 'incredibly irritated at all these freaking spiders' would be more apt."

"Ah, that was exactly what I was hoping to hear! My name is Menri Togh and I think my entire family was murdered. Possibly by spiders," Menri explained.

"Well that's certainly unfortunate," Fayne said. "But I don't see why you need _help_. Don't tell me this is another burial quest!"

Menri shook her head. "No, it's not that. I got here a few days before the spider attacks and I've been here for weeks. Our farmhand, Cartery Jayck, recently showed up and wouldn't tell me anything about my parents for awhile and then he finally said they were eaten by spiders. He's just been acting so strange lately and won't talk to anyone, even me! I don't know if it's because he watched it happen and is horribly traumatized or what but I _have _to know! But not only would I not be able to make the journey safely on my own but I don't think I could stand to see what has become of them."

Fayne hesitated. "It's not far, is it?"

"Oh, no, not at all! You could probably be back by nightfall if you don't run into too many problems," Menri promised.

"Alright, then, I guess I'll look into it," Fayne agreed.

* * *

Fayne had a pretty uneventful journey up to the castle if you didn't count the killer spiders. Unfortunately, it seemed like being ambushed by spiders or other creatures was the sign of an unremarkable journey.

Once in the castle, she didn't see anybody (except, once again, for some damned spiders) as she moved about it. That wasn't a good sign but it didn't _prove _anything as she was still looking through it. One thing she did notice was that the castle had a bad habit of having traps just lying out in the middle of the hallway. What was the point of that? Were they spider traps or something? Anyone sentient could tell the trap was there, at least after the first time stepping on that odd marking got them impaled, but it was just so big it was hard to avoid.

Fayne didn't even want to think about how scraped up she was and how unhygienic getting impaled on something that had probably impaled a lot of other people was. And just why would anyone need a trap like that every few feet in a place they lived? Wouldn't it be better just making the castle more impregnable?

But anyway, the fact that the castle itself was doing far more damage to her than the invading spiders aside, she found and activated a bunch of lorestones because she continued to be compulsive about that. She didn't stick around to listen but managed to pick up something about the Widow returning to kill all the fae in the castle. Strangely, once she had activated about a half a dozen of them a fae voice sounded talking about how she had thought her fun was over. That sounded rather ominous and Fayne followed the voice to a newly opened gate and stepped right through.

She was just walking along when all of a sudden a fae appeared literally right in front of her. She wasn't sure if this was just a projection or if it was getting out of stealth mode or a projection. Was that what it looked like to fast travel?

"Someone else here in the castle!" the fae exclaimed. "But it's only a dull mortal. I'm sure the fact you haven't been eaten already is just a fluke and you'll be eaten by my pets here. And even though I fully expect you to die a horrible painful death in the next few minutes, I'm willing to concede there's a possibility that you won't die so I'll tell you to deliver a message to that doomed town. The Widow is back and she is going to kill them all so she can reclaim this land for all spiders!"

With that she vanished.

"Well…okay then," Fayne said, shaking her head in bemusement. "I guess it's back to Canneroc for me."

On her way back to town, the journey was made slightly more interesting by finding some human remains and feeling a strange compulsion to gather them up, find the rest of the remains, and bury them all back in town. That was stupid and a waste of her time, though, so she left the bones where they were.

When she reached town, she was once again attacked by a couple of giant spiders. Since this was the same experience she had the first time, she didn't really think much of it and just electrocuted them all to death.

If she was expecting Barten to be grateful then she was sadly mistaken.

"It took you long enough!" he grouched. "What, did you go off and do some other quests before you came back here?"

"I, well, I sort of agreed to do something for someone and paid the blacksmith to upgrade my house but other than that I went straight there and back. I just got attacked by spiders and weird castle traps a lot," Fayne said. "I wasn't gone all that long!"

"Long enough for spiders to invade the town and nearly kill us all," Barten said stubbornly.

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I guess, but honestly how long does that even take to happen?"

"Well you're back now so why don't you tell us how to defeat the spiders," Barten said loudly.

Fayne shrugged. "Everyone at the castle was eaten by spiders."

"That is…quite discouraging," Barten admitted, his shoulders sagging.

"The good news was that someone calling herself the Widow was there. I think she just hates people and towns and stuff and she wants to destroy you all because of it."

"That is good news indeed!" Barten exclaimed. "You just have to go and kill her and hopefully do it before we're all eaten by spiders."

Fayne groaned at the prospect of being sent off once again to save this town. "At least this will be easier than slaughtering every spider in the area."

"And better for the economy since we do, in fact, need some of them for silk farming purposes," Barten asked. "Best of luck, we'll all be hiding in the inn."

Fayne's eyes widened. "What, the whole town? The inn's really not THAT big."

"Eh, the logistics of that will be my problem while you're off saving us," Barten said easily, waving her away.

Well she knew where she wasn't wanted.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

The Widow was just waiting for her in a cave which Fayne supposed was an indication that she was going the right way.

"The mortal from Castle Yolvan," she complained. "Your stubbornness in surviving is just another irritant from you mortals."

"As supposed to what exactly?" Fayne asked. "Your kind which would just lie down and die if you told them to?"

"You've met my kind, surely?" the Widow asked rhetorically. "What do you think they'd do if they believed that it was their fate to be killed by my spiders?"

Well, the Widow had her there.

"Or even if they thought it would be too inconvenient to try and escape on their own," the Widow continued thoughtfully. "We have a rather different attitude to suicide than mortals do and often do it if it seems like it would be easier."

"Well I'm not going to up and kill myself and I'm going to keep killing all of your spiders until I face you and then kill you, too," Fayne promised. "You might not come back from it, just so you know. I don't know for sure and I won't ever know unless I'm proven wrong one day by meeting Queen Belmaid again or something but I wouldn't risk it, personally."

"My kind endures," the Widow scoffed. "I'm enraged that you keep killing my spiders but I'm also going to keep throwing them at you until they kill you. I'm confident you cannot possibly kill them all."

"And I'm confident that I can. I do hope you have the sense not to blame me for their deaths when you're the one throwing them in my way," Fayne told her.

"How about this? You go and kill everyone in Canneroc for me thus doing what I wanted in the first place but with less effort expended on my part and in return I just don't kill you?" the Widow offered.

"Who would actually think that was a good plan?" Fayne demanded. "If I didn't care if you destroyed the one place I can actually call home, as strange as that seems given I only discovered it earlier today, I wouldn't have come all the way out here in the first place!"

"Ah, my mistake. I thought you had potential. I'm just going to have you killed them but I lack the sympathy to do it myself."

"What does sympathy have to do with anything?" Fayne asked. "And why does me refusing your deal mean that somehow I'm easier to kill?"

"I…well…" the Widow fumbled before just fading out.

"That's one way to avoid losing an argument," Fayne muttered before continuing on.

She proceeded to slaughter everything in the cave with very little inconvenience. She thought maybe she got poisoned at some point when a spider bit her and she started feeling lightheaded but it was nothing all that serious and she'd get a healer to take a look at it later.

The Widow was waiting for her in the very back of the cave.

"How dare you murder all my spiders?" the Widow demanded.

"Seriously?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "I thought we weren't doing that. You're the one who sealed their fate by sending them to kill me, remember?"

"I don't recall promising that I was going to be rational about this," the Widow sniffed, sticking her nose in the air. "Your hunger is far greater than that of the fae that I slaughtered at Castle Yolvan."

"Hunger?" Fayne asked, confused. "Do you mean skill? Is this some sort of verbal paraphasia?"

"No it isn't!" the Widow exclaimed. "I said hunger so I meant hunger."

"Yeah but…in what way? Can you explain to me how hunger has anything to do with it? Maybe…a hunger for victory or something? It still doesn't make a great deal of sense but if I'm reaching then I guess I can see-"

"Oh, never mind," the Widow snapped. "I'm going to kill you now. Or you could kill me, I guess. Not that I care since I'm just going to come back to life."

"I know that fae are immortal and I'm sure you've died and come back a million times but that still strikes me as a pretty unhealthy attitude," Fayne noted. "Though more so for a mortal, I guess. Still, you did hear the part about how I might be killing fae permanently?"

"I don't believe you!" the Widow shouted before she attacked.

Predictably, Fayne defeated her and the weird purple fate thing happened so the Widow was beaten to death by what was probably her own fate and likely wouldn't be coming back.

"Seeing as how she wasn't under mind control at the time and I did warn her, I don't actually feel bad about this," Fayne realized. "Plus she had an obscenely long life anyway."

Fayne headed back to Canneroc. When she entered the inn she was immediately set upon by a jubilant Barten.

"You did it!" he cheered.

"Uh, yes, I did," Fayne conceded. "But how could you _possibly _know that?"

"Well we weren't all murdered by spiders," Barten reasoned. "So what else could it be?"

"I feel like there is a lot wrong with your logic but, on the other hand, you are technically right so I'm not even sure where to begin arguing with you," Fayne said.

"We owe you our lives which is worth more than all the gold in the world but at the very least we can give you this," Barten said, shoving a bag of money at her. "Thanks again for being literally the best person ever."

Fayne accepted the money with a smile. "I don't know what it is about this place but I _really _like it. I can even go sleep in my own bed tonight!"

Menri came up to her then. "It's not like I don't appreciate being saved and whatnot but have you bothered to go investigate what happened to my family?"

"Now that I defeated the Widow, can't you do it?" Fayne asked reasonably.

"I _could _but you already said you'd do it," Menri pointed out. "What's taking so long?"

"You remember that bit about me saving you all? I kind of figured that was more pressing than finding your parents' corpses," Fayne said.

Menri threw her arms up in the air. "Well if that's your attitude then I don't see how this is going to end well."

"If by some miracle they're still alive, I could be the most cynical individual ever about their prospects and it wouldn't prevent me from saving them," Fayne argued.

"Unless you suspected they were spiders or something and shot them the moment you saw movement," Menri countered.

"I…well okay then. I promise I won't do that," Fayne said, at a loss of how to properly respond to that.

* * *

The next day, Fayne decided she should probably head out to the Togh farm. Unfortunately, she was quite thoroughly sick of spiders at this point and yet the farm was still infested with them. She quickly took them down while trying to stay away from them since they had the nasty habit of immobilizing her and poisoning her and then entered the farmhouse.

There were dead bodies, all right, but also some spider sacs which looked completely out of place in a home and felt rather wrong so Fayne ruthlessly destroyed them. She was tempted to just turn around and let Menri know that her parents were dead but Menri had already suspected that so she should probably examine the body and try to figure out what happened.

She was hardly a forensic expert but it looked like the first body had some slash marks on it and the body in the basement still had a knife buried in it so that was a pretty easy to determine cause of death. The knife had the initial's CJ written on it because apparently they weren't done with everyone's ridiculous need to personalize their weapons. Fayne could honestly say that she had never felt the need to do that. But then again, she only had about three months worth of memories so maybe she was just as bad before that.

She went back to Menri.

"So I found your parents murdered and a dagger with the initials 'CJ' on it buried in your father's back," Fayne said.

"CJ?" Menri repeated. "I wonder if that's Jayck."

"There's a good chance that it is," Fayne said. "Please, for your own safety, don't confront him if you're alone and just avoid giving him a chance to kill you in general. Even if you're wrong about him and he's completely innocent and the spiders killed your parents with his knife or whatever, him being offended is a small price to pay to keep you safe."

"You make a good point," Menri said. "Which is why I'd like you to confront him about it for me."

"Me?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "Why?"

"Well he's in the town so it's not like it would be a huge inconvenience," Menri reasoned. "And you're plenty strong. You killed the Widow and made it to the farm and back in one piece."

"Not for nothing but Jayck, guilty or not, also made it from the farm here just fine. And he apparently did it without his knife. Though why he'd leave that behind when it's evidence and there's a spider epidemic is beyond me," Fayne said.

"So he's defenseless!"

"Or has more than one weapon," Fayne argued. "Or he managed to get past the spiders unarmed in which case he's probably very, very good."

"It won't take all that long," Menri said persuasively.

Fayne sighed. "Oh, fine."

She didn't know who Cartery Jayck looked like but fortunately the very first person that she went up to greeted her with, "So the savior comes to Cartery. What do you want?"

"You could be a little less condescending to the person who saved you, for one," Fayne said, a little irritated. "Also, I found a dagger with your initial's on it in a dead guy at the Togh farm. Did you kill him? Did you kill his wife? If so, why? Menri seemed to think you guys were friends."

"I can't believe I left that behind!" Jayck exclaimed, horrified. "And I can't believe I didn't notice that until right now. We _were _friends, you see. But I deserted from the war ten years ago and now Carowyn tried to make me go back? Why doesn't _she _go off to war if it's such a noble cause and that easy to just head off? Or her husband for that matter?"

"So you killed her and fled instead of just fleeing."

Jayck coughed, embarrassed. "Looking back, I see that I should have just left and _not _killed them first but I kind of panicked."

"Look, I'll agree that from your story, which is completely lacking in any sort of detail, she was pretty awful for trying to send you off to a war she wasn't willing to fight but that doesn't mean killing them was okay," Fayne said sternly.

"How about I give you a lot of money and you don't tell anybody what happened?" Jayck asked hopefully.

"Look, sooner or later Menri is going to go home and find what happened and I don't trust that you won't kill her for that, too, even when logic dictates that you just leave town now," Fayne said. "And I already told her I found your dagger. This is just a formality, really, so I can figure out why and confirm it was you. It's a little late for hiding things. Now, you can either go to jail or try to escape and I kill you."

"I've always been a 'taking a third option' kind of guy," Jayck announced, pulling out another dagger. "I've already killed two people and even I completely fell to pieces about it and am still struggling with what happened, I am fully prepared to kill a third!"

"Yeah, that's not happening," Fayne said simply as she raised a hand and struck him with lightning. "I should probably go before what passes for the law around here asks any questions about why I just killed a guy. But first, back to Menri."

Menri was still in shock. "I can't believe he killed them just so he could avoid a war!"

"I can't believe he bothered killing them when it would have been so much easier to just sneak off. He wasn't their slave. They couldn't have the law after him and probably wouldn't have bothered trying to hunt him down," Fayne said. "If he was really smart, he could have told them he was going off to fight and then just didn't."

"What happened to him?" Menri asked. "Did you arrest him?"

Fayne coughed uncomfortably. "About that…I was going to but then he was mysteriously struck by lightning and it wasn't my fault and now he's dead."

Menri sighed. "Well so much for that. I knew they were probably dead but I could have handled death by spiders far more easily than this."

"If it makes you feel any better, if Jayck hadn't killed them they probably would have been eaten by spiders given that the house had been infested by spiders," Fayne offered.

"That does literally nothing to make me feel better in any way at all."

Fayne shrugged. "Well, I tried."

* * *

Fayne was approaching another village when a man stepped out in front of her.

"I'll kill all of you damn boggarts if I have to!" he cried out before breaking into a coughing fit.

"Are you alright?" Fayne asked, concerned.

The man continued coughing for another two minutes before saying, "Yes, quite fine. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, really," she replied. "But you do realize that I'm not actually a boggart, right?"

The man nodded. "Oh, yes. That was just… a general warning for the boggarts of the world."

"So while I know you're alright, do you mean introducing yourself?" Fayne asked. "And maybe telling me what your perfectly alright coughing is all about? Don't tell me it's _allergies_."

"Alright I won't even though I think I probably am allergic to boggarts," the man said. "My name is Thaddeus Holn and I'm afflicted with the plague."

Fayne immediately jumped back. "What the hell? You said you were fine!"

"It's not serious."

"It's the fucking plague!"

Thaddeus looked at her oddly. "You know, I've never heard you swear before."

"You've known me for like two minutes," Fayne pointed out.

"You just look far too innocent to do something like that," Thaddeus continued.

"You don't want to know what my body count looks like," Fayne said. "And, strictly self-defense or not, when you've got a body count like I do 'innocent' isn't really the right word. Now hurry up and tell me about your 'no big deal' plague."

"The blood plague-" Thaddeus started to say.

Fayne held up a hand. "Okay, there's just no way something called the blood plague can be considered not really a big deal."

"It isn't, though," Thaddeus insisted. "Sure I keep coughing but all it does is takes away thirty percent of your damage resistance. It could literally kill you if you get in a fight but it's been nonlethal so far as a killer on its own."

"That's oddly specific," Fayne said. "How can you possibly know it takes away exactly thirty percent damage resistance?"

Thaddeus shrugged. "Maybe it's an estimate? Listen, dangerous or not you might want to skip a plague-infested town. If not, Kester Barclay over in the town square might be able to tell you how you can help before you, too, are struck with this illness."

"What town is this?" Fayne asked.

"Didenhil."

On the one hand, Fayne really wanted to avoid this place like, well, the plague. But on the other she might need to come back here some day and if she could try and see if she could somehow end the plague (as unlikely as that seemed) then she'd be in much better shape. Besides, she might already be infected.

Kester Barclay turned irritably when she approached. "By Mitharu, what is it you wa-Oh, hello. Did Thaddeus send you?"

"Did you think I was him?" Fayne asked. "Does he really annoy you that much?"

"Yes, yes he does," Kester answered, nodding. "I keep telling him to take a rest before he gets himself killed but he seems to think the fact that the plague doesn't outright kill means he doesn't need to worry about dropping dead from sheer exhaustion."

Fayne shrugged. "Well, it's his life. Now, I'm a little worried I may have already contracted it so can you cure it? Do you know what's causing it? Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Our healer can cure the plague and she's been doing it regularly but the problem is that the boggarts carry it in their venom and they keep attacking the newly-cured people so they get sick again," Kester explained. "Our healer is running low on cures and the supplies that were supposed to arrive this morning didn't. You might check with her if you're concerned."

"So I can only catch the plague from boggarts?" Fayne asked, brightening.

Kester nodded. "As far as we've been able to work out, yes. And the boggarts have been harassing us here in town because some Jotun have stolen their territory. If you could go kill the Jotun also any boggarts that you find I'm sure the plague would wind down very quickly and once the healer's supplies are restocked we would be past this."

"You know, ordinarily I'd be a bit skeptical of ending a plague by killing people," Fayne said. "But in this case I think I'm just going to go with it."

She went into an inn and coincidentally heard someone mention the name 'Camden.' That was what she vaguely remembered that probable widow in Gorhart saying her husband's name was and so she went over to investigate.

"Ah, a stranger!" Camden said, surprised. "You really shouldn't be here. We all have the plague. Well, I don't currently but I did the other day and I'll probably get it again."

"I will just never get used to being easily spotted as an outsider anywhere except among fae because I'm clearly not one of them," Fayne said, shaking her head. "Listen, did you marry someone named…actually I don't remember. But did you marry someone in Gorhart and leave the day after your wedding to go to war and then just never came back and left her to think she was a widow for three years when she's obviously not and you're obviously fine?"

Camden winced. "Judging by the angry and accusatory tone of that question I feel like I should say no. But, in truth, I did. Her name is Gizela. Why?"

Fayne snapped her fingers. "Gizela, right, now I remember. Look, she sent me to look for you because you just never came back and nobody will tell her anything."

"But I sent her that death notice," Camden protested.

"And somehow I don't think she got it. Or if you did it was obviously a fake. Most probably, it's on the way but they just have so much difficulty finding people to deliver them that yours is still waiting," Fayne suggested. "Either way, you're clearly not dead so you've got a lot to answer for."

"Call me a coward or selfish or whatever you'd like-"

"You're a selfish bastard."

Camden winced again. "You certainly don't pull your punches, do you?"

"Why should I? Your wife deserves better than to be abandoned because you regret your marriage."

Camden's eyes widened and he began waving his hands around emphatically. "Oh, you do not understand at all! I could never regret my marriage to my dear wife!"

"Then…what the hell?"

"It's just that I'm injured," Camden said, gesturing to the bandages that Fayne hadn't noticed before wrapped around his head. "I have nightmares. And I can't sleep. And I have injuries. Best to make her just think I'm dead and she's a widow and she'll either spend the rest of her life alone or I'll force her to become an unwitting bigamist."

Fayne rolled her eyes. "Okay, look, obviously things will be hard but she's absolutely miserable without you and she's been worried you're dead so I don't think she'll complain about a little hardship. Why don't you stop being a coward and go home and let her decide what she wants to do with her life? Making decisions for your wife is not an attractive behavior."

"By jove…you're right!" Camden realized. "How did I not see that before?"

"Idiocy, I think."

"I must go home to my wife right away and we can be blissfully happy forever, the unfortunate side effects of my having been in the war notwithstanding!" Camden declared, practically running out of the inn.

"Rude," Fayne sniffed. "Not even saying goodbye. If I'm ever in Gorhart I'll have to see if Gizela will give me anything for my help. I don't care enough to go out of my way but if I'm in the area it will be a nice bonus."

She kept exploring until she found the healer, Astrid Frisk. She just followed the sound of coughing until she found her though Astrid didn't appear sick herself.

"I'm sure you're very ill," Astrid said before Fayne had a chance to say anything. "And yes, I'm sure it's very serious. But I have no more plagueshield and so there is nothing I can do."

"In the interests of making sure that if I ever _do _get ill I'm not left to languish in sickness, is there anything I can do to get you that plagueshield?" Fayne offered.

Astrid's eyes lit up and she took out a map. "Well if it isn't a miracle! Here, Brother Fallon was supposed to deliver the plagueshield and this is the route he took. If you could find her or at least the plagueshield and bring it to me then we'd be back in business."

"I'll be back, then," Fayne told her.

* * *

Ten dead Jotun and countless dead boggarts later, Fayne was reasonably certain that she had solved the plague through sheer violence.

She was trying to find her way out of some ruins when she ran into a sorcerer with a giant floating book. "Oh, you surprised me! What are you doing down here? I see my Jotun have failed in their orders. Did Padaxes send you? Or was it Lysander? Tell me!"

"Who the fuck are they?" Fayne asked.

"They're my rivals. We're all at war with each other. They want to stop me from creating an army of skeletons. Shouldn't you already know this?" the sorcerer asked rhetorically.

"So wait…you're telling me that the Jotun are your protectors and here to keep people who want to hurt you away from you," Fayne deduced. "And as such, the Jotun displaced the boggarts and they caused a plague to hit Didenhil."

"What's a Didenhil?" the sorcerer asked blankly.

"Oh, just die," Fayne said, annoyed. She still waited until he attacked first so it would still be self-defense then made short work of him. "No one that stupid and selfish deserves to live."

* * *

When Fayne returned to the town it was the middle of the night and yet Kester was still awake and ran over to greet her.

"You're back! We felt the earth shake and assumed you must have done something to end the plague," Kester said.

"Well that's a rather odd leap to make," Fayne said, blinking.

"Were we _wrong_?" Kester asked.

"I cannot say that you were, no," Fayne admitted. "It turned out some weird sorcerer was trying to create an army of the dead and two other sorcerers didn't want him to so he got the Jotun to be his bodyguards and you can see what happened. He had no idea what he was doing."

"So you got him to stop?" Kester asked.

"Violently."

"Thank you so much for saving us all. Even though this was a totally non-lethal plague we thought for sure we were all going to die," Kester told her. He gave her some gold. "We owe you all our lives. Or at least our good health."

"What happened to Thaddeus?" Fayne asked.

"He passed out so his family dragged him home and won't let him leave," Kester replied. "It might have been better for the gene pool if he had just been allowed to get himself killed but some people are sentimental I suppose."

"Some people," Fayne agreed wryly.

She went back to Astrid.

"Brother Fallon dead on the road?" Astrid asked rhetorically. "Oh, what is this town coming to? At least you have the Plagueshield."

Fayne stared at her. "How could you _possibly _know that? Maybe I hadn't even left."

"I…just…do," Astrid said shadily.

Fayne sighed. "Fine, you're right. The Red freaking Legion of all people killed him. I swear, they're like cockroaches and I thought they were mostly confined to Gorhart. How do they even still exist?"

"I don't know," Astrid said. "But the plagueshield, if you please? Maybe this time when I cure the whole town they'll actually _stay _cured."

"Wouldn't that be nice?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

* * *

Wandering around some more, Fayne encountered a gnome standing by the side of the road with a wagon.

"Only one head, thank the gods, I thought my time had come at last," he marveled.

Fayne felt she really should get to meeting up with Agarth before he, too, was murdered by Tuatha who were looking for her but so very bad at it but that sounded interesting.

"Why were you expecting someone with more than one head?" she asked.

"My name is Avicenn Etelle," Etelle introduced. "Fate seems to hate my expedition and to hate me even more since it just won't hurry up and kill me."

"Why do you want to die?" Fayne asked, perturbed.

Etelle shook his head. "Oh, I don't, exactly. It's just really disheartening to see everything that could possibly have gone wrong – save my death or maiming or something – have gone wrong. If I ever doubted that something could be fated not to happen then my doubts would be long gone by now."

"What is your mission?" Fayne asked.

"I've spent the last decade researching this artifact called Shine and Shadow. It hasn't been easy since literally all we know about it is its name and its supposed to be powerful but the templars freaked out and want it. Everyone else died getting it. Could you maybe help?" Etelle asked hopefully.

Fayne crossed her arms. "Didn't you _just _say that this was probably Fated to never succeed?"

"What's your point?" Etelle asked blankly.

Fayne sighed. "Fine, whatever, if I stumble across your giant monster and find your Shine and Shadow and somehow correctly identify it as such I'll come back and see you. How's that sound?"

"Well if it involves me not coming with you or doing anything then I think it sounds lovely," Etelle said happily. "Thank you, mysterious stranger! If you succeed, I'll give you a lot of money. We might have been underprepared but we were not underfunded."

"Then maybe you should have used some of those funds to make sure you weren't underprepared," Fayne said pointedly.

Etelle shrugged. "Well it's a little late for that _now_, isn't it?"

There was another man nearby and Fayne decided that she might as well see if he had any pressing business that needed to be attended to while she was there.

"Hello," she greeted him. "This may sound like an odd question but would you like me to do a favor for you?"

The man turned around, looking greatly surprised. He had large red marks on his face but since Fayne couldn't be certain if it was blood or face paint and didn't want to offend him if it were the latter, she chose to keep quiet about it. "Oh, how very kind! As it happens, I have a nephew in town – Thaddeus – and I was so very lonely for such a long time since my wife died."

"Oh, I met him," Fayne said, snapping her fingers. "He's…alive."

"That's good to hear," Holn – probably – said, eyeing her strangely. "I met this wonderful nymph and we were supposed to get married by the pier but there are all these monsters and they must have scared her off. I can't go searching for her because I'd get torn apart. Would you mind killing them all for me?"

"Not particularly but is there some reason why she can't come to you?" Fayne asked.

"Probably monsters," Holn said sagely. "If it's anything else, I can't very well know that until I see her again now can I? Could you maybe also find her?"

"How am I supposed to do that when I don't know what she looks like or even her name and she could be literally anywhere or even dead?"

"With any luck, fate will be on our side and you'll find her in the area in a wedding dress," Holn replied.

"And if fate isn't on our side?" Fayne asked.

"Then I guess this is going to be rather difficult," Holn replied.

"What is a nymph, exactly? Is marrying them even legal? Do they stay in one place even?"

"That's my problem, not yours," Holn replied indifferently.

Fayne sighed and went on her way. She found a corpse and, upon doing the rational thing and stealing everything on said corpse, found that the dead person had completed a mission for the Warsworn prior to expiring and should she ever go join the Warsworn like she had been planning on earlier then she should really give this to them and let them know that the mission had been completed. And possibly that whoever this was was dead if they knew who was going out trying to complete the mission.

Right when she stood up, she saw Agarth hurrying towards her from across a bridge.

Fayne winced and braced herself. "Oh, was this where we were supposed to meet?"

"What is wrong with you?" Agarth exploded. "It's been a month and a half since you told me that you'd come straight here!"

"In my defense, I've been very busy!"

"What was it this time?" Agarth asked rhetorically. "Did you go out and become the outright queen of the summer fae?"

"Actually I saved Canneroc from spiders, Didenhil from the plague, and helped out various other people," Fayne corrected.

"Well none of that is as important as this and I wasted _so much _time when you clearly only ended up here by accident," Agarth said, annoyed.

"How is this little expedition more important than saving entire towns?" Fayne demanded.

"This could change the fate of the world! Literally!" Agarth exclaimed. "Do you seriously not see what a big deal this is? I would have thought the House of Ballads would have impressed this upon you."

"Let me put it this way," Fayne said. "Imagine, for a moment, that you had no fate or at least were not aware of any fate. Imagine that you were surrounded by everyone else who were convinced that fate controlled at least the larger of their actions and that they might as well not even try because no matter how simple the task is, if they are fated to fail then they'll fail. And if they're destined to somehow do impossible things then it'll happen even if they spend their life in a tavern. Imagine that you're not one of them and you don't remember growing up in the culture that breeds such an attitude. Tell me if you think you'd take this any more seriously than I am."

"You must know that I can't possibly imagine such a thing!" Agarth protested.

"And I can't imagine your mentality, either," Fayne explained. "I'm starting to think that if I really am the sole person with no fate and can't remember ever having had a fate then I'm literally incapable of understanding everyone else. That's a little bit frightening."

"_Now _you're frightened! But only a little bit? I find this _terrifying_. But that's what we're here for. Here in the ruins of Dellach we'll see for sure. Who knows? Perhaps you're just as Fatebound as the rest of us but have a very unusual fate," Agarth suggested. "Well now that you're here I guess we can get started."

"You did tell me not to bother coming, you know," Fayne pointed out as they started walking.

"And I also took it back," Agarth reminded her. "Plus I can't even be grateful for you for not coming since you came anyway."

"I don't even get you," Fayne said, shaking her head.

"Yes, I do believe we've already established that," Agarth said, nodding.

"So why did we come to this super special sacred Fateweaving place again?" Fayne asked.

"I'm having trouble diving just where you fit into things-"

"I and the House of Ballads have mostly been operating on a 'I'm not a part of Fate at all' theory," Fayne reported.

"Well I'm not ready to concede that just yet, especially since we're only feet away from answers. If I can't read your fate here then you have none. Be careful, though. Despite being the perhaps the most important place ever it's infested by Jotun and other fun things," Agarth warned. "Be very quiet if you don't want them all to swarm us at once."

Fayne considered. "Well it would certainly save time…"

Agarth glared at her. "_Quiet_."

The moment they were inside, Agarth seemed to forget that he had wanted them to be quiet and started waxing poetic about the place. "This place has been abandoned for so long that some think it's merely a legend despite the fact that it's right here out in the open. Some Fateweavers are kind of thick if you ask me. Still, beggars can't be choosers and it takes a special kind of idiot to want to join our order these days."

Fayne wisely refrained from asking why he joined then.

"I say, it that Shine and Shadow?" Agarth asked innocently as Fayne pulled a pair of daggers from a Jotun corpse.

Fayne stared at him. "How could you _possibly-_"

"Fateweaver," Agarth interrupted. "Just because you have no fate doesn't means these don't. And besides, really, how else would you be able to identify them? I don't know why you're looking, though, because Fate doesn't seem to want to cooperate with you."

"Well…thanks, I guess," Fayne said.

"Please tell me you weren't out looking for some fancy daggers instead of meeting with me," Agarth pleaded.

"It was on the way and clearly I found you _before _the daggers."

Agarth just sighed heavily. "Now, to see the whole tapestry of Fate. I've always wanted to see this but I never did because of…reasons."

"Ah yes, 'reasons.' Reasons are why I do anything and everything," Fayne said knowingly.

"None of us can change the horrors that are in store for us though many have tried. Even when it seems like there is literally no way you can fall into lava if you never go anywhere near a volcano, Fate finds a way. It's truly remarkable. If you truly can change Fate, showing you what is Fated could cause all sorts of problems but we'll just have to see what happens," Agarth said. "You know, after all those years of hiding in a bottle it's good to see some action again if only one last time."

Fayne blinked at him. "One last time? What are you talking about? You don't have to go retire after this, you know. You can go see all the action you want. It's fine. You're really not all that old."

"Oh, if only," Agarth said wistfully.

"I don't have time for this," Fayne said. "Tell me what you mean if you want otherwise I'm choosing to ignore this."

Agarth said nothing for a little while longer and they fought their way through the ruins.

"Hey, is that a two-headed creature?" Fayne asked, surprised. "I guess that gnome wasn't seeing things after all!"

Agarth, meanwhile, stood frozen. "I've seen this moment. I'm sorry, my friend, but this is as far as I can take you."

Fayne started. "Wait, what?"

Agarth didn't answer, just strode purposely towards the creature.

Fayne rolled her eyes and followed him, determined to get some real answers once this was over. Through a special combination of stabbing it, setting it on fire, and shooting lightning at it Fayne eventually killed it.

Agarth was staring at her as if she had done something impossible.

"What?" she asked self-consciously. "I've done much harder things than this. Don't tell me I went and changed Fate again."

"You did, actually," Agarth said, shaken. "I was supposed to be brutally murdered and used in that warrior's stew."

Fayne made a face. "Ew. Why would you look up your own death when you were powerless to do anything about it? Sounds rather morbid to me."

"You try having the power to see what's going to happen to you and everyone you know and see how long you can resist peeking," Agarth challenged, crossing his arms.

"But wait…" Fayne breathed, realizing something very important. "You were going to die right here and we haven't even done what we came here to do?"

"I did try to get Arden to take you," Agarth defended himself. "And I didn't know for sure that this would happen _before _I examined your fate."

"But you didn't tell me what to do if you died beforehand! And I don't know the first thing about examining Fate! This whole thing would have gotten you killed and been a ginormous waste of time!" Fayne complained. "You kind of suck, you know that?"

"It's not my fault this was my fate," Agarth pointed out. "And I knew that you didn't have a fate but I had never realized that you could change the fates of others. It makes sense, I suppose, since in my fate I would have been here alone and died but you having the power to be here too allowed me not to meet my own fate. It's just so hard to believe."

"I don't think it is."

Agarth rolled his eyes. "Again, we've already had this conversation. Oh, you are so much more powerful and dangerous than I would have thought. And…did you say you saved Didenhil from a plague? I seem to recall that it was supposed to be completely wiped out by said plague. I'll have to examine the tapestry again and see if that was a different plague or it's not gone or if they have a new fate. I hope _they're_ not without one, too!"

"It might be good for them," Fayne opined.

"Well of course _you'd_ say that," Agarth said. "Come on, we really need to get to that tapestry."

Eventually, they reached a room with a stone circle in the center of it. A beam of light hit the stone circle from who even knew where.

After they cleared the room, Agarth approached it reverently. "The Destiny Stone. With it, the fae taught the Fateweavers the mysteries of Fate."

"And they in turn taught everyone else to have no sense of personal responsibility as its all some mythical force's plan for the universe?" Fayne asked, unimpressed. "I should have known. Thanks for that, fae."

"Hey, it really helped us and it's not their fault the world is run that way," Agarth claimed.

"It's entirely possible they believed that but it doesn't mean it's true. I don't see how anyone is helped by knowing there's nothing they can do to change what is in store for them. It's enough to drive someone to nihilism," Fayne said disgustedly.

"Place your hand on the stone and let's see what happened."

Shrugging Fayne did just that. The moment her flesh made contact, the stones slid around like parts of a puzzle. She picked up the small stone that was revealed to her.

"The Codex of Destiny," Agarth said as she lifted it up. "Wow, you subvert the natural order and screw Fate so much that even the Destiny Stone came apart at your touch! This is getting eerie. You can use your great powers for good or for ill."

"I've mostly been making the world a better place so far since I'm not a terrible person," Fayne said.

"But is your plan better than Fate's plan?" Agarth wondered.

"Well if Fate's plan was really that an entire village die from a nonlethal plague because of one idiot sorcerer and his bodyguards…then yeah, I think my way is so much better it's not even funny," Fayne replied.

"No matter what else happens, I feel like I should thank you for saving my life," Agarth said. "I-What's that?"

Fayne turned to look. A group of Tuatha had appeared. Most of them rushed at them but one stayed back.

"Purge the abomination in the name of Gad-" the leader got out before being utterly gutted by Alyn.

"Hey, that's the woman that said she didn't kill Arden," Fayne explained to Alyn.

"I didn't!"

"I assume the abomination is me because I have no fate," Fayne concluded. "How rude."

Working together, the three of them quickly dispatched the assassins.

"Honestly, it's like they're not even trying," Fayne complained.

"Hi again," Alyn said, waving. "I just wanted to let you know that I think the Tuatha have some way of tracking you you might want to look into getting rid of. I'm glad we're all on the same page now about you having no Fate. I'm ultimately looking to end this war and save the world but we'll get to that later. Right now, I'm here to tell you that that codex you found is literally incapable of being read by a mortal because it's fae magic and not an actual language. They use lorestones since they have no written language. Normally I'd say go to the fae city Ysa but they don't like unexpected guests so we'll work up to that. For now, come find me in the House of Ballads. That's a good place to meet, isn't it? You're the king and there are plenty of friendly fae to get us started. Bye!"

With that, she ran off.

"Busy woman," Fayne said, shaking her head. "I still don't know if I believe we used to be best friends. I do like how competent she seems to be though."

"Well I don't trust her," Agarth said. "And I'm annoyed that she's right and her solution seems to be a very sound one. So basically do exactly what she says but don't trust her at all. After all, she's a dokkalfar and we all know what _they're_ like."

Fayne glared at him.

"Uh, present company excepted, of course," Agarth added hurriedly.

"I cannot even believe that you are racist-"

"I am not! They're just a sneaky people!"

"Not helping your case here. But I don't have much of a choice to work with you because most people don't know about me and you seem very helpful. But seriously, I am very disappointed with this new revelation," Fayne said, frowning. "And after I saved you from being stew, too! And so help me, if you tell me I'm not like the others I will hit you."

"I won't, I won't!" Agarth exclaimed. "Listen, now that Didenhil isn't going to be destroyed anymore go meet me there and I'll see if I can find a way to see how the Tuatha are tracking you and get rid of it."

"Sounds good to me," Fayne said. "But I've got my eye on you."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Etelle looked dismayed when she returned to him. "These are Shine and Shadow?"

"…What?" Fayne asked. "Yes, I did recover them and yes I do have them. In my pack. What are you even talking about? You can't see them."

Etelle looked confused now.

Fayne sighed and pulled out the daggers. "Here."

"Now, as I was saying," Etelle continued. "The Templars back in Adessa will think that I am a fool for bringing back simple daggers and not an artifact of great importance."

"Well they are very nice daggers and who knows what other properties it won't be your problem to discover they possess?" Fayne asked rhetorically. "Besides, they didn't send you out to retrieve artifacts of great importance generically, now did they? They wanted you to bring back these specific artifacts and you will and so they have no business being upset with you. Except maybe for losing the rest of your team."

Etelle sighed. "If only the templars would see it that way!"

"Are the templars really that petty and stupid they'd blame you for the fact that the artifact they know nothing about isn't what they wildly guessed it could be?" Fayne asked skeptically.

Etelle hesitated. "I wouldn't say 'petty' or 'stupid' exactly…"

Fayne sighed. "Well good luck with that, then."

Etelle gave her some money and off she went.

She was merrily killing her way through all the Ettin in the area when Holn ran up to her.

"You did it! You found my bride! Did you see the sexy way she slaughtered that Ettin?" Holn asked, star-struck.

Fayne took a step back, suddenly quite uncomfortable. "Uh, no offense Holn but I'm not going to marry you."

Holn blinked at her. "You? Well no offense to you either but I wouldn't want that!"

"But I'm the one who killed that Ettin."

"No, no, I saw my lovely bride do it with my own eyes!"

"Yeah, that's impossible since it was me," Fayne argued. "And does is strike you as at all odd you don't appear to have a name for your bride? Or that she could have been 'frightened' away from meeting you because of some pests when she could take out a full-grown Ettin like I just did?"

"Well…I…" Holn broke off. "You're right! That's not my bride! That's a filthy leanashe! Can you go kill it for me to preserve the memory of my bride?"

"I was probably going to kill it when it attacked me anyway in a moment but…you realize there was never any bride, right? Just a leanashe who was going to kill you. What's to preserve?" Fayne asked reasonably.

"Oh just do it and let me revel in my cognitive dissonance in peace," Holn snapped.

Sighing, Fayne took out the leanashe.

"Thank you so much for that," Holn said gratefully. "I guess I'm going to go live with Thaddeus in Didenhil after all. In the meantime here, take my wedding ring."

Fayne held up her hands. "Okay, hold on, guy! Just because I killed your killer non-nymph fiancé doesn't mean that I want to-"

Holn twitched. "Why do you keep thinking I want to get married?"

"Oh, I don't know," Fayne said sarcastically. "Maybe it was the fact that you literally got engaged to some weird creature whose name you didn't even know at the drop of a hat and you won't stop talking about how lonely you are. And you want to give me a wedding ring!"

"It's a reward for helping me and, no, my hand is not a part of that reward," Holn said frigidly. "I expect you to keep it with you always or at least store it in your house or something and not sell it like a normal reward because this isn't just a normal reward. It's my wedding ring. It has far too much sentimental value and I'm trusting you not to pawn it."

Fayne made a face. "Well if I can't even sell it without being a terrible person then can you just keep it?"

"No. And I also need you to go find a charm of my wife's that I left lying on top of her grave and some Ettin stole," Holn told her.

"So demanding," Fayne complained but she set off anyway.

When she returned with the charm, Holn gave her what appeared to be all the money he had and said she could sleep in his home whenever she wanted. It was a nice gesture but also sort of creepy so she quickly left.

* * *

Fayne returned to the House of Ballads and took a moment to revel in the adulation of her fae subjects before going to find Alyn. She was attempting to convince one of the fae that she had the Codex of Destiny but, since actually Fayne had it, she only had limited success.

"Ah, here you are!" Alyn exclaimed. "I was starting to think that you would never show up."

"Really?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "It's only been like two days."

"Well I know you didn't come straight here."

"I came _mostly _straight here," Fayne said. "Seriously, you need to lower your expectations about my punctuality. I've kept Agarth waiting for months at a time before."

"Yes but that was Agarth and he's obviously a lot less interesting than I am," Alyn reasoned.

"Yeah, lower those expectations down right now or you're going to drive yourself crazy waiting for me," Fayne warned.

"This is Glianel, loremaster of the House of Ballads," Alyn introduced. "Give the Codex over to him and let's see if he can do anything with it. I doubt it, personally, but it won't hurt to try."

"I know who King Sagrell is!" Glianel exclaimed, highly insulted.

Alyn stared at her. "I'm sorry. Did he just say that you were King Sagrell?"

"Oh, did you not know that?" Fayne asked innocently.

"I had heard that King Wencen was displaced for cowardice and the mortal Sagrell took up the throne but since they refuse to acknowledge people outside of their roles there really wasn't any way for me to know it was you," Alyn said defensively. "Though perhaps the fact that the Maid was changing the telling and you changed it right back should have been some sort of a clue."

Glianel held out his hand for the codex and Fayne gave it to him. "Why would a codex reveal itself to you?"

"Uh, well, I was over at the Theater of Fate and Agarth told me that I should touch it so he could see what my fate was and it sort of broke so I took this and left," Fayne said. "I'll concede that it's pretty odd, really."

"Oh, what is this nonsense?" Glianel burst out.

"What nonsense?" Fayne asked him.

"It says that someone is going to come along and change Fate and grant a permanent death to the fae and I don't even…it's nonsense. Nothing but nonsense," Glianel said firmly. "Therefore it must all be lies because I don't like what it says."

"Not for nothing but…remember the Maid of Windemere? And how she kept changing the Telling? And how I accidentally ended up changing the Telling by stopping her? And how, with her prismere, the only way I could have done that was by having no Fate myself to bind me? And how everyone is giving me grief because I probably permanently killed a bunch of people by not having any skill in dispellment? And that's how I became your king in the first place?"

Glianel coughed, embarrassed. "Oh, right. That. Well I guess this could be genuine after all. But I still don't like it and it's creepy and I don't want anything to do with it. And besides, I can only read a little bit of it anyway so you really should take it to the High King in Ysa."

"Well thanks anyway," Fayne told him. She turned to Alyn. "Now what?"

"Now we go to Ysa to see the High King. Unfortunately, he doesn't want people cluttering up his nice fae city and killing him would be quite the coup for Gadflow so we'll need to get permission from the oldest living mortal, Nyralim, to see him," Alyn said.

"How old is the oldest living mortal?" Fayne asked.

"I'm not sure exactly but he's surprisingly older than the fae," Alyn said. "He's also a giant talking tree. Kind of weird, I know. And he, like most people who have had dealings with me, can't stand me. Something about me betraying him or something, I don't even remember. I'll pop up again later on but you'll probably do better on your own. I don't _think _you were involved with the Nyralim incident but then again who can say? Certainly not you. And even if you were, you have amnesia now so I'm sure it doesn't count."

"Oh great," Fayne deadpanned.

"Here's where you go," Alyn said, showing Fayne the spot on the map. "Go ahead, take your time with this if you want. I'm not actually waiting this time."

"I just _know _this is a test!"

* * *

Test or not, Fayne was promised that it was perfectly alright to go do other things instead of going to meet with the giant talking ancient tree and so she decided she might as well go look up the Warsworn since she had been told she could join and had to deliver the message from that corpse.

She just sort of wandered into their Keep and nobody tried to stop her or ask for any identification despite how heavily armed she was so she couldn't say that she was favorably impressed from the start.

There was an old guy standing a few feet away from the entrance so she decided to walk up to him first.

"A commendation from Odura, huh? Well that will get you in the front door but you'll still have to survive your first mission before you can be more than the hired help," the man said.

"Well that doesn't sound very appealing. And I got the impression from Odura that you guys were literally willing to take anybody you were so desperate for bodies," Fayne said. "I had to slaughter the whole Red Legion to get the damn commendation in the first place!"

The man raised an eyebrow. "Really? Because we've been having a bit of a problem with them here and-"

"Oh, never mind," Fayne snapped. "How did you even know that I met him, much less that he gave me a commendation?"

"Well you came up to me, didn't you?" the man asked rhetorically. "I'm Tine Delfric. I'm in charge. If you wanted a mission board quest thing I'm not the guy to talk to. So I figured that you were here to join up, and if you were serious you'd have the commendation, or you were here to try and assassinate me and you don't look that stupid."

There was only one thing to say to that. "But why Odura specifically? Is he literally your only recruiter?"

"We're not so desperate we need more than that, not yet," Delfric said. "Listen, there's a war going on and any chance for heroics was lost long ago."

"Not according to the House of Ballads where I performed all sorts of feats of heroism and became king. Or Canneroc where I saved them all from being eaten by spiders. Or Didenhil where I killed enough people I stopped a plague. Or-"

"Okay, okay, I get it. But there's no heroism to be found with the Warsworn so it's good you're getting that in elsewhere," Delfric interrupted. "Hirelings like yourself can make a good living standing guard."

"I'd rather stab myself in the eye," Fayne said honestly.

"Well there's also a road patrol leaving soon. Traders on this one road keep getting attacked so wander the road awhile and hope that whoever is attacking is stupid enough to attack you but also weak enough not to kill you," Delfric said. "Do something interesting and maybe one day you, too, will get to join the lowest ranks of our order."

"I can see why they don't put you in charge of recruitment and only send people here when they're fully committed," Fayne said.

Before she left she decided to talk to some of the other people in the Keep to see if anything interesting was going on. She approached one man and he groaned. Not a good sign.

"Oh, stop gawking. Sure there are grander sights than Shielding Keep but it's home," the man said defensively.

"Oh, I wasn't gawking," Fayne assured him. "And I wouldn't. I don't actually think I've seen a grander keep than this before."

"Have you seen any other keeps before?" the man asked.

"I'm not entirely sure so probably not," Fayne replied.

"Well that's alright then. I'm Idwold Freward. If you're looking to join up with the Warsworn talk to Tine Delfric," Idwold said.

"I _just _did that two minutes ago and you were looking right at us," Fayne pointed out.

Idwold shrugged. "Well I can't say that I was paying the most attention in the world now can I? Anyway, if you complete any of the tasks on the quest board then – Warsworn or freelancer – talk to me and I'll pay you."

"I should probably talk to you anyway and give you this," Fayne said, digging into her pack and pulling out the note from the corpse she found earlier. "This guy apparently finished your Ettin quest. But then he died."

"In that case we don't have to pay him and certainly won't pay you for finding his body," Idwold said, taking the note. "Ah, but here he said he didn't even kill all of the Ettin!"

"I killed all the Ettin in the area though, my track record being what it is, I'm sure they'll bet better or something or more will come to the area. Are Ettin fae?"

"I'm sure I don't know," Idwold said. "But I'm just going to take your word for it that you killed them so take this money."

"That's oddly trusting," Fayne said. "I think I'll have to remember that and take a look at your quest board."

There was only one quest up and it apparently was reposted. It turned out that if nobody did the contract then every five days they kept reposting it until it annoyed someone enough to actually do it. In this case, Fayne was supposed to kill a bunch of trolls in Haxhi. She couldn't promise the posting wouldn't need to be reposted another five times but she'd look into it. And even if someone else also killed the trolls, there would always be plenty for her to kill.

Fayne went off to go find the man she was supposed to bring to Warden's Bridge in Didenhil for the start of their patrol. He was in a healer's home standing worriedly over an ill woman.

"The plague still?" Fayne asked, surprised. "I thought I fixed that."

"Oh, it's not the plague," Astrid said. "They've just all got the flu."

Fayne explained their mission to her fellow recruit and he looked relieved.

"Paid work?" he asked rhetorically. "That's great. The gold's running low and Mother's not doing too good."

Fayne winced. "Oh, don't say that! You're tempting Fate."

"If my fate is to die doing this then I don't see how me saying something or not is going to change is," the man said reasonably.

"Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you," Fayne said. She let the man leave first and then turned to the ill woman. "You know, I feel bad. I do. Take this just in case."

"Thank you," the woman said, surprised. "But what exactly do you-"

"Sorry, got to go. Warsworn work," Fayne interrupted, running off.

She met up with a group of Warsworn that just happened to include Ost Odura.

"Done recruiting for now?" she asked.

"I'm never done recruiting," Odura said. "So if I spot someone that looks like they are competent-ish and isn't already a member of our order, I'm going to need to break away from the group for a minute. I'm surprised it took you this long to make your way here. I gave you that commendation more than three months ago and I know this group only contains hirelings. Surely if you were still a hireling after all this time, you'd just give it up as a bad job."

"Actually," one of the other hirelings spoke up. "I've been a hireling for five years now and I have to say that it is one of the most fulfilling-"

"Oh, shut up," Odura snapped.

"Well, I had to go become the king of the House of Ballads first," Fayne explained. "That seemed a little more pressing as they were actually under attack and in a state of some emergency and things seem to be okay here."

"For now, yes," Odura said. "But if people were prepared for emergencies they wouldn't really be emergencies, would they?"

"I don't know about that," the same hireling said. "After all, if you know that a flood is coming – or a Tuatha attack – then maybe you can try to prepare for it but you can't prevent it entirely and-"

"One more word and I'm throwing you out of the order," Odura warned him.

He wisely shut up.

"Now, we're here to investigate the missing travelers. Just basically wander around and hope you see something," Odura instructed. "We'll meet up in a little while."

The group split up and Fayne dutifully investigated rocks and footprints and basically learned nothing. When she got to what she vaguely thought might kind of be the meeting spot, only Odura was there waiting for her.

"Oh good, I'm in the right spot," Fayne said, sighing in relief. "But wait, where is everyone else? Did they get lost? _I_ totally didn't get lost so they have no excuse. Should we go looking for them or something? Am I early? Or am I late and you had to wait around for me?"

"Actually…" Odura trailed off, looking awkward. "They all died."

Fayne's eyebrows shot up. "All of them?"

"Yeah. I was just waiting for you. They were picked off one by one and it turns out we've got Niskaru back here," Odura said.

"I was gone for maybe five minutes!" Fayne protested.

"The Niskaru strike fast and now we have to go investigate the source of it and wipe them all out," Odura told her.

"What's a Niskaru?"

"Niskaru are the demonic creatures straight from hell who want to wipe out all life," Odura explained. "We Warsworn stand against them but we haven't had to in quite some time. We should really go deal with this, just the two of us."

"Are you sure that's the best plan?" Fayne asked uncertainly. "I mean, I know that I'm amazing and I have faith that you're pretty competent if they put you in charge and you want to do this but…seriously? Let's go back and get reinforcements."

"It's too late for that."

"Not really. We don't know that they're launching an attack right now or anything. It wouldn't take very long," Fayne said.

"I'm going and if you want to get paid and have a chance to get promoted you'll go, too," Odura said stubbornly.

Fayne sighed. "Oh, alright. But I didn't really plan on killing any minor demons today."

Somehow, Odura seemed to know exactly where the Niskaru would be coming from which Fayne found terribly odd and a bit suspicious.

At last, he stopped before an entrance. "Okay, the patrol's done. Here's your pay. You can make your way back on your own or come with me to kill all the Niskaru and _maybe _make Pledgeshield."

"_Maybe_?" Fayne couldn't believe it. "You want me to face down demonic creatures and who even knows what else and you can't even guarantee I'll get promoted?"

"Tine Delfric hates promoting people so quickly," Odura confided. "He thinks it sets a bad example for all the rest. And to be fair, when this kind of thing happens all the hopeless ones who haven't done anything deserving start pestering him for a promotion because of 'seniority.' Besides, we might not even find any Niskaru here and then you wouldn't even deserve a promotion."

"I might deserve one for being willing to face down a Niskaru," Fayne suggested hopefully.

Odura sighed. "Just come on, will you? Brigand's Hall is a thieves' den, just so you know, so there's going to be traps everywhere."

"Just like whenever I go into any building that isn't a home or an inn," Fayne said, sighing.

"Hey, how about I put you in charge, new recruit?" Odura asked suddenly. "I need to think and I can't both think and walk in front."

"Then maybe you shouldn't be leading at all…" Fayne suggested tactfully. "Oh, right, war and a shortage of men."

And so Fayne ran around looting things, getting hit with traps she couldn't be bothered to avoid, and eventually came across a group of people.

"What's this?" Odura asked, finally shaking himself out of the stupor he'd been trailing after her in. "Bloody mages and not Belen's Testament, either."

"What's a Bhelen's Testament?" Fayne asked curiously.

"They're a death cult," Odura explained. "They worship a god of death and believe they are saving people by killing everyone. It's rather terrifying how quick they are to massacre everyone. I have no idea how they manage to not kill each other long enough to recruit. Or how they recruit anyone when they kill everyone they meet. Just…their logistics makes no sense at all. But this isn't them. These people must have powerful chaos magic to summon and control Niskaru."

"Chaos magic?" Fayne repeated. "Now you're just making things up."

"I'll tell you what. We survive this and I'll buy you a drink and tell you all about it," Odura promised.

Fayne winced. "Oh, now you had to tempt Fate, too!"

Odura didn't answer and merely attacked the mages. Fayne joined in and soon the mages were all dead. Odura looked pointedly at one of the Niskaru and took out his sword and Fayne could only watch in horror as the other Niskaru very slowly approached him and impaled him.

With Odura out of the way, it was up to Fayne to single-handedly defeat them both. Careful not to let one of them get behind her, she did so and ran up to Odura who was still breathing if only barely.

"How could you not see that coming?" Fayne demanded. "It was moving very, very slow."

"If…if you saw it…coming then wh-why didn't…you stop it? Or at least…warn…me…?" Odura asked. But then he died and so Fayne didn't have to answer that very pertinent question.

Instead, she continued on and eventually heard some sort of mage identify himself and his fellows as the something weird starting with an F.

"The Ferengi?" Fayne asked, puzzled.

"The _Fahrlangi_," the mage corrected, summoning a giant Niskaru.

It was a little bit more complicated to kill this one but she ultimately was able to beat it to death with its own fate. She grabbed everything in the room, including some weird thing she didn't know what it was, and headed back to the Keep.

"Well, hireling?" Delfric asked her. "How goes the patrol? Or did you choose not to do it. If you just skipped it then I can't promise that another opportunity will come knocking on your door."

"Oh, no, I went," Fayne said. "But everyone but me – including Ost Odura – died horribly. They were killed by Niskaru who were summoned by some people calling themselves the Ferengi, I think. It was really weird."

Delfric stared at her. "Then…no offense but how are you still standing? Did you flee like a coward?"

"You mean 'like a sane person when faced with demonic hellbeasts'?" Fayne corrected.

Delfric nodded. "Yes, like that."

"I did not. I killed all the Niskaru and the Ferengi who were there and then I came back here," Fayne explained.

"But…you're only a hireling!" Delfric burst out, unable to believe it.

"Yeah, but that's just because I joined up all of five minutes ago," Fayne pointed out. "Technically speaking the weakest of all people who dream of becoming a Warsworn and someone who can decimate armies would both have to start off as a hireling. You look at people with my rank and decide that we must be weak but actually I just killed all of the Niskaru there without breaking a sweat. And Odura promised me he'd strongly consider making me a Pledgeshield if I went with him to kill the Niskaru but he died before he was able to do it."

"Well then let me make you a Pledgeshield," Delfric said. "Fayne, you're a Pledgeshield."

Fayne shrugged. "Sweet. I really love how everyone keeps just automatically believing my version of events with no proof."

"Are you lying?" Delfric asked sternly.

"No but you can hardly just take my word for that, can you?" Fayne asked rhetorically.

"Actually, I think that I can," Delfric replied.

"I should probably tell you I found this weird thing and it might be important or it might just be some modern art," Fayne said, taking it out of her pack and showing it to Delfric.

He took it reverently. Perhaps he was an art fan. "This…this is the Heart of Sibun. Eagon won this centuries ago. It should be locked in our Ancient Vault."

Probably not art then. She would have asked who this Eagon was but he seemed to think she should already know and she didn't want to expose herself as uninformed especially if it was something really basic. "Clearly your Ancient Vault isn't particularly secure."

"Clearly," Delfric agreed grimly. "Go to Helmgard keep and work with Grian Shane to figure out who managed to rob us and why and if we need to kill any more Niskaru. I would have liked to have sent Ost on this task but since he's dead I might as well send the newest and most inexperienced of our order instead."

"Shouldn't something as dangerous as a Niskaru summoner or whatever this is be destroyed instead of just put into storage?" Fayne wondered. "I mean, in what possibly situation could you see yourself needing to use the Niskaru and summoning them being a good plan?"

"You'd be surprised who might think that was a good idea," Delfric said absent-mindedly. "And we can't destroy it. It's been declared a historical artifact. You know how it is."

"I…okay then," Fayne said, mystified. "I'll get going to Helmsgard."

* * *

She was walking along, hoping she was going in the right direction, when she came across man.

"You, there, did the Warsworn send you?" he asked hopefully.

"I guess that depends," Fayne said. "This clearly isn't Helmsgard Keep-"

"Oh, no, this is nowhere near it," the man said. "Here, give me your map and I'll point it out. Right there."

"Why does everyone always assume I have a map?" Fayne wondered.

"Because only an idiot would travel without one," the man answered.

"As I said, this isn't the Keep so if you're here to destroy some trolls and there was a note on the quest board about it then yeah I guess I was technically sent in that the notice was reposted and I agreed to do it."

"Good to know you, then," the man said, shaking her hand. "My name is Declan Malus. My companion Jory was killed and I've been here for about a week. There were more trolls than expected and they were fiercer than I anticipated, too. I'm severely injured so I hope you can take them all by yourself."

"Somehow I doubt that will be a problem," Fayne told him.

"We were expecting rock trolls but it's actually mountain trolls. Good luck!"

She had killed just taken out her fifth troll when she ran into a gnome.

"I'm afraid you've caught me at a bad time," the gnome told her. "The famed hospitality of the gnomes may be missing today."

"Famed hospitality?" Fayne repeated, surprised. "This is literally the first I've ever heard of such a thing."

The gnome stared at her in horror. "Well now I really can't let you leave without experiencing it but now's _really _not the best time."

"Why don't you tell me what's going on?" Fayne said persuasively.

"My name is Stellen Reitan. I'm a surveyor from the east. As a surveyor, my journal is my most precious possession and I literally cannot get by without it," Stellen began.

"And, let me guess, you lost it."

"_I _didn't lose it," Stellen said indignantly. "My friend Horace Despero wanted to borrow it and he went off into a cave and I haven't seen him or it since."

"Oh, I get it," Fayne said, snapping her fingers. "He must have stolen your journal and taken off and you'll never see him again. He'll either sell your journal outright or use the secrets to further his own career. That really sucks."

"He didn't steal my journal!" Stellen cried. "Why would you even think that?"

Fayne shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe something about how 'Horace Despero' is the most obvious fake name that I have ever heard in my life. It is just seriously ridiculous."

"It really is his real name," Stellen tried to tell her.

"I'm sure it is," Fayne said patronizingly.

Stellen twitched. "No, my problem, you see, is that I think my friend is probably dead and my journal lost but I know if I go in there I'll just die, too, and my journal isn't quite worth my life. If somebody else could go and find out what happened and bring my journal and, miraculously, my friend back to me then I'd be eternally grateful. And monetarily grateful just in case I'm not being clear."

"Well I don't think you're going to find anything but if you promise that if I go in this cave and make a good-faith effort to find him and he's not there then you'll still pay me anyway then I'll go look for him," Fayne offered.

"Oh, thank you so much!" Stellen exclaimed. "The cave's right over there. I've pretty much been camped right outside of it waiting so unless there's a back entrance he literally couldn't have snuck past me and that's part of why I'm so certain that he's still in there and probably dead."

Declan had wandered over at some point during the conversation so she went over to him.

"How many trolls was I supposed to kill? I got five of them," Fayne said.

"You were supposed to kill _all _of them," Declan said.

"And I'm supposed to wander around hoping I haven't missed one for how long now?"

"Actually, I'm pretty sure there were just the five," Declan admitted. "So I guess you're done then. It's amazing what you've managed to accomplish."

Fayne decided not to mention that it hadn't really taken all that much to kill the trolls because she was sure this guy with his dead friend wouldn't appreciate her thoughts on the matter.

"Since the trolls are now dead and I don't have to look at that damned unfilled quest anymore, I can safely return home with my honor," Declan said. "If you hadn't come along I probably would have made no effort to kill the trolls again or get any adequate medical attention and would have just died out here so as not to embarrass myself. You can have Jory's sword hilt. It was very important to him so please don't sell it. I know you never met him but it has sentimental value. You'd best hurry up back to Shielding Keep before someone else tries to do this quest, sees that it's been completed, and takes the credit."

"Are people really that horrible?" Fayne asked.

"I would absolutely do just that," Declan replied. "Well, later then."

Fayne went into the cave and was quickly set upon by some walking skeletons. They were never that challenging to deal with but they also never seemed to attack on their own. She pressed further into a cave and eventually found a cage with a body and a tattered journal lying right next to it. While it was kind of a weird idea that someone would be captured and tortured or at least held until they died of starvation or something and take the time to write in a journal. But then, if they suspected they were going to die it could be the only way anyone would ever know what would happen to them.

She skimmed it and found out it didn't belong to Stellen's friend but to some bounty hunter who thought this girl wanted to destroy a 'foolish cult' he had been hired to get rid of but she actually betrayed him to the cult and they were doing some weird ritual.

Fayne had just turned away from the cage to look for Despero's body when he was attacked by a leanashe. She vaguely wondered if this was the 'Keska' that the bounty hunter had fallen for. Granted she didn't appear to have any legs and the guy had clearly mentioned having a weakness for, well, legs but Holn had thought a leanashe was a nymph-bride so they apparently had some sort of mind-control powers.

She killed the thing that may or may not be Keska and then found Stellen's journal on a nearby corpse. Well, at least he probably hadn't been captured before his death.

When she made her way back to Stellen, he somehow knew that she had his journal with her.

"My journal!" he cried exuberantly. "I trust this wasn't _too _difficult to obtain."

"Actually, I think you trust that it _was _or you have no excuse for standing around fretting instead of going in yourself," Fayne corrected.

"Well…I only meant for one of your _skill_," he tried.

"You had no way of knowing how skilled I was when you sent me in," Fayne pointed out, crossing her arms.

Stellen awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, yes, but I figured you were probably more skilled than me since you clearly have more weapons than me. And if not, I'd lose nothing if you died and I didn't have to pay you. But you didn't die! So, what happened to Horace?"

"Don't think I didn't notice you asked about that stupid journal first," Fayne said. "And your friend is dead. So I guess I was wrong about him wanting to rip you off."

"I'm glad you realize that now."

"So…?"

"Oh, right," Fayne said. "He's dead."

"Oh, that sucks," Stellen said, sounding remarkably not broken up about this. "Well, here's your gold. Goodbye."

"Are you two even friends or not?" Fayne demanded. "You spent all this time trying to convince me you were so worried and wanted to know if he was okay and now you don't even care."

Stellen shrugged. "It's a dangerous line of work and he up and died with my journal in an area I could never, ever get it back from. You've always got to take the circumstances into account."

"I am judging you _so _hard right now."


End file.
